PostgreSQL setup and use

[Brad Pepers]

I'm trying to use PostgreSQL on Fedora Core 10 and 11 and have a  
couple issues and questions:

1. When you install the postgresql-server package, it doesn't start  
the service so you have to do this manually.  This seems like an extra  
unneeded step since if I'm installing it, I likely want to use it but  
fair enough.  To start it though I bring up the Services program and  
enable the postgresql service and then try to start it.  It fails  
without giving any message or information.  I then went to the  
Terminal and ran the /etc/init.d/postgresql script manually with the  
"start" parameter.  I then see it wants me to run the script with  
initdb first before I can start it.  Again fair enough but now thats a  
couple extra steps and the need to run things from the command line to  
get the database running which seems user hostile.  On other  
distributions when I install the server, when it's installed it's  
ready to run.  Or at least the first time I do the "start" it will  
create the initial db for me instead of requiring an extra command.

So is there a good reason for all these extra steps?  Could this not  
be streamlined?

2. So now I have it installed and I try to create a database using  
createdb.  I'm logged in as bpepers and just do "createdb foo" on the  
command line.  I get this error message:

	createdb: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL: Ident  
authentication failed for user "bpepers"

Anyone know why this is happening?  The pg_hba.conf is using "ident  
sameuser" for local connections.  As far as I know this should allow  
the postgresql server to authenticate that I'm me.  The PostgreSQL  
docs says it uses SO_PEERCRED which should be supported on Linux.   
Being able to create a database for myself works on *every* other  
distribution I've used (Mandriva, SuSE, RHEL, Ubuntu, ...) and without  
this it's pretty useless.

The above issues make it very difficult to use PostgreSQL on Fedora  
Core 10 and 11.  The first problem means a number of extra steps run  
as root and the second seems to mean the user will have to edit  
PostgreSQL config files in order to get things running.  If anyone  
knows of an easier way to get this working or a solution to the ident  
authentication failing, please let me know!  And if there is someone  
specifically to ask these questions or make suggestions to the  
postgresql-server package install process, let me know!

--
Brad