DATE: 3/1/2010  by rschramm

ISSUE:  on ubuntu vm, I cant log into postgres  with psql as database user expddba (there is no unix expddba)

SOLUTION: there is a postgres file that controls authentication method. Needed to change from IDENT to TRUST. Tis may not be our 'final' best solution, need to know more about it.  See ref#2 below for more on that. See ref#1 for the clues that led me to the steps outlined below.

see ref#1: http://www.cyberciti.biz/faq/psql-fatal-ident-authentication-failed-for-user/
also ref#2: http://www.postgresql.org/docs/8.0/static/auth-methods.html

also, in ref#1, it says to set
"host    all    127.0.0.1/32    trust"
did not work, but i got it to work by:
"host all all  127.0.0.1/32 trust"
which more correctly match the pattern of the other lines in the file.
 
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rich@ubuntu:/$ sudo gedit /etc/postgresql/8.4/main/pg_hba.conf

rich@ubuntu:/$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 restart
 * Restarting PostgreSQL 8.4 database server                                  [ OK ]

rich@ubuntu:/$ psql -d expd -U expddba -W
Password for user expddba:
psql (8.4.2)
Type "help" for help.

expd=> help
You are using psql, the command-line interface to PostgreSQL.
Type:  \copyright for distribution terms
       \h for help with SQL commands
       ? for help with psql commands
       \g or terminate with semicolon to execute query
       \q to quit
expd=> \q
rich@ubuntu:/$