su postgres: Sorry? [closed]

Question

i have a problem with my postgreSQL setup on my new Mac OSX Lion machine.

I can't seem to connect to the service

$ createuser -a -d _postgres
Password: 
createuser: could not connect to database postgres: FATAL:  password authentication failed for user 

I have no chance to find the correct password. Any idea what could that be. I have the default setup with a localhost server. The same happens when I try to connect via pgAdmin.

$ su postgres
Password:
su: Sorry

I have no chance to find out what's wrong?

Mcneill

Is FATAL: password authentication failed for user the reason? – Roslyn

no, id don't think so. I typed my userpass a 100 times. It's always the same message. And I don't think in this case I should enter the userpass, but rather the database password! – Mcneill

It's just silly to suggest that this isn't on topic. – Simper

I posted the equivalent of this Question on the DBA Stack Exchange: Switch user to 'postgres' user on macOS results in “su: Sorry” error – Georganngeorge

Answer 1

try this:

$ sudo su postgres

And specify your own password.

Subduct

this does work! bash-3.2$ However how can I fix the problem with createuser -a -d _postgres -> `could not connect to database postgres: FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres" Any idea how to fix this? – Mcneill

Usually when you are logged in as postgres, you have superuser access to the database and doesn't need to provide the password for the postgres user. – Subduct

I came from running this tutorial: community.rackspace.com/products/f/25/t/6800 where a postgres is installed and one is asked to login "su - postgres" which asked for a password which in fact does not exist. So sudoing helped: "sudo su - postgres" – Kaliningrad

Thanks so much for this huge tip! I posted the same info on DBA Stack Exchange. – Georganngeorge

Answer 2

Does this work?

First get root access

$ su - 
Password: RootPW
# su - postgres

Pyriphlegethon