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Postgresql failed to start

This problem has been driving me crazy and nothing seems to be working. I need to change the location where postgresql stores the data base. I am a complete novice when it comes to using commands in the terminal and step by step instructions with the proper commands would really help. I searched all over the web but all instructions assume some prior good knowledge to terminal commands. I did try one approach by creating a symbolic link in the main data folder to my required location. This gives me an error that asks me to check the log file. However, I have no idea where the log file is. A lot of people seem to have this problem and a step by step solution would surely help. My Psql version is 8.4. Ubuntu 10.10

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  • Do you have you existing contents that need to be moved or are you considering a clean empty instance? Commented Jul 23, 2012 at 8:11
  • Also a re-post of stackoverflow.com/questions/11562590/postgresql-failed-to-start Commented Jul 23, 2012 at 13:32
  • I deleted the question on DBA. @Amitash, if you cross-post again like this there will probably be consequences. Don't do it. Commented Jul 23, 2012 at 13:39

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The latest log file full path is /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-8.4-main.log but the symbolic link is not the more integrated/easy way to change the data location.

I'd suggest to do it by creating the entire cluster to the desired location, with the pg_createcluster command that comes with the debian/ubuntu postgres packages.

1- delete your current cluster, if it does not contain any prior data:

$ sudo pg_dropcluster --stop 8.4 main

2- create a new cluster at the new location

$ sudo pg_createcluster -d /path/to/new/location 8.4 main

3- restart postgresql

$ sudo /etc/init.d/postgresql start
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Cluster drops perfectly. When I try to create a new cluster on my second hard drive, it says "initdb permission denied". So I did a chown on my user on my folder. That worked fine. When I try again, I still get the same error. Is this maybe because I am trying to create the cluster in a mounted drive and not my root ubuntu installation drive?
Creating new cluster (configuration: /etc/postgresql/8.4/main, data: /media/New Volume/Virulence/data)... could not change directory to "/media/New Volume/Virulence" initdb: could not access directory "/media/New Volume/Virulence/data": Permission denied Error: initdb failed
@Amitash: When executed with sudo pg_createcluster should fix directories and permissions by itself. BUT: When you talk about a /media path: Is this a removable device? Is is by chance a FAT or NTFS filesystem? Then permissions won't work.
It looks like the permissions of the folder do not let the postgres user descend into that directory. Make sure that all directories in the path have the 'x' bit set for other user (for example rwxr-xr-x is good, rwx------ is not good). Do chmod -R 755 /media if you don't know how to fine-tune it.
@Amitash Things like "It is NTFS and was created in Windows" is kind of important. Please post detailed questions to save everybody the time of asking you for every detail.
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