How to configure postgresql for the first time?

Question

I have just installed postgresql and I specified password x during installation. When I try to do createdb and specify any password I get the message:

Answer 1

EDIT: Warning: Please, read the answer posted by Evan Carroll. It seems that this solution is not safe and not recommended.

This worked for me in the standard Ubuntu 14.04 64 bits installation.

I followed the instructions, with small modifications, that I found in http://suite.opengeo.org/4.1/dataadmin/pgGettingStarted/firstconnect.html

1. Install postgreSQL (if not already in your machine):

sudo apt-get install postgresql

2. Run psql using the postgres user

sudo –u postgres psql postgres

3. Set a new password for the postgres user:

\password postgres

4. Exit psql

\q

5. Edit /etc/postgresql/9.3/main/pg_hba.conf and change:

#Database administrative login by Unix domain socket local all postgres peer

To:

#Database administrative login by Unix domain socket local all postgres md5

6. Restart postgreSQL:

sudo service postgresql restart

7. Create a new database

sudo –u postgres createdb mytestdb

8. Run psql with the postgres user again:

psql –U postgres –W

9. List the existing databases (your new database should be there now):

\l

Answer 2

The other answers were not completely satisfying to me. Here's what worked for postgresql-9.1 on Xubuntu 12.04.1 LTS.

1. Connect to the default database with user postgres:

   sudo -u postgres psql template1

2. Set the password for user postgres, then exit psql (Ctrl-D):

   ALTER USER postgres with encrypted password 'xxxxxxx';

3. Edit the pg_hba.conf file:

   sudo vim /etc/postgresql/9.1/main/pg_hba.conf

   and change "peer" to "md5" on the line concerning postgres:

   local      all     postgres     peer md5

   To know what version of postgresql you are running, look for the version folder under /etc/postgresql. Also, you can use Nano or other editor instead of VIM.

4. Restart the database :

   sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql restart

   (Here you can check if it worked with psql -U postgres).

5. Create a user having the same name as you (to find it, you can type whoami):

   sudo createuser -U postgres -d -e -E -l -P -r -s <my_name>

   The options tell postgresql to create a user that can login, create databases, create new roles, is a superuser, and will have an encrypted password. The really important ones are -P -E, so that you're asked to type the password that will be encrypted, and -d so that you can do a createdb.

   Beware of passwords: it will first ask you twice the new password (for the new user), repeated, and then once the postgres password (the one specified on step 2).

6. Again, edit the pg_hba.conf file (see step 3 above), and change "peer" to "md5" on the line concerning "all" other users:

   local      all     all     peer md5

7. Restart (like in step 4), and check that you can login without -U postgres:

   psql template1

   Note that if you do a mere psql, it will fail since it will try to connect you to a default database having the same name as you (i.e. whoami). template1 is the admin database that is here from the start.

8. Now createdb <dbname> should work.

Answer 3

Under Linux PostgresQL is usually configured to allow the root user to login as the postgres superuser postgres from the shell (console or ssh).

$ psql -U postgres

Then you would just create a new database as usual:

CREATE ROLE myuser LOGIN password 'secret';
CREATE DATABASE mydatabase ENCODING 'UTF8' OWNER myuser;

This should work without touching pg_hba.conf. If you want to be able to do this using some GUI tool over the network - then you would need to mess with pg_hba.conf.

Answer 4

You probably need to update your pg_hba.conf file. This file controls what users can log in from what IP addresses. I think that the postgres user is pretty locked-down by default.