ok, i cleaned it up and made a new install. apt-get refuses to install libpq.so. alex@srv:~$ /usr/lib/postgresql/8.4/bin/pg_ctl start -D /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main -l /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.4-main.log -s -o -c config_file="/etc/postgresql/8.4/main/postgresql.conf" /usr/lib/postgresql/8.4/bin/pg_ctl: error while loading shared libraries: libpq.so.5: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory alex@srv:~$ sudo find / -name libpq* /usr/share/doc/libpq5 /usr/include/libpq Does anyone have this issue with a new postgresql 8.4 install? Who should install libpq5? See the complete log: alex@srv:~$ sudo apt-get install postgresql Reading package lists... Done Building dependency tree Reading state information... Done The following extra packages will be installed: postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-common Suggested packages: oidentd ident-server postgresql-doc-8.4 The following NEW packages will be installed: postgresql postgresql-8.4 postgresql-client-8.4 postgresql-common 0 upgraded, 4 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. Need to get 4,967kB of archives. After this operation, 18.2MB of additional disk space will be used. Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y Get:1 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main postgresql-client-8.4 8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10 [828kB] Get:2 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com karmic/main postgresql-common 101 [85.6kB] Get:3 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main postgresql-8.4 8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10 [4,043kB] Get:4 http://br.archive.ubuntu.com karmic-updates/main postgresql 8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10 [10.2kB] Fetched 4,967kB in 23s (216kB/s) Preconfiguring packages ... Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-client-8.4. (Reading database ... dpkg: warning: files list file for package `libpq5' missing, assuming package has no files currently installed. (Reading database ... 151106 files and directories currently installed.) Unpacking postgresql-client-8.4 (from .../postgresql-client-8.4_8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-common. Unpacking postgresql-common (from .../postgresql-common_101_all.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package postgresql-8.4. Unpacking postgresql-8.4 (from .../postgresql-8.4_8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10_amd64.deb) ... Selecting previously deselected package postgresql. Unpacking postgresql (from .../postgresql_8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10_all.deb) ... Processing triggers for man-db ... Processing triggers for ureadahead ... Setting up postgresql-client-8.4 (8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10) ... update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/psql.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/psql.1.gz (psql.1.gz) in auto mode. Setting up postgresql-common (101) ... Building PostgreSQL dictionaries from installed myspell/hunspell packages... en_au en_gb en_us en_za Setting up postgresql-8.4 (8.4.2-0ubuntu9.10) ... Creating new cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main)... Moving configuration file /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main/postgresql.conf to /etc/postgresql/8.4/main... Moving configuration file /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main/pg_hba.conf to /etc/postgresql/8.4/main... Moving configuration file /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main/pg_ident.conf to /etc/postgresql/8.4/main... Configuring postgresql.conf to use port 5432... update-alternatives: using /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz to provide /usr/share/man/man1/postmaster.1.gz (postmaster.1.gz) in auto mode. * Starting PostgreSQL 8.4 database server * Error: could not exec /usr/lib/postgresql/8.4/bin/pg_ctl /usr/lib/postgresql/8.4/bin/pg_ctl start -D /var/lib/postgresql/8.4/main -l /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.4-main.log -s -o -c config_file="/etc/postgresql/8.4/main/postgresql.conf" : [fail] invoke-rc.d: initscript postgresql-8.4, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing postgresql-8.4 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of postgresql: postgresql depends on postgresql-8.4; however: Package postgresql-8.4 is not configured yet. dpkg: error processing postgresql (--configure): dependency problems - leaving unconfigured No apport report written because the error message indicates its a followup error from a previous failure. Errors were encountered while processing: postgresql-8.4 postgresql E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)