IDENT authenticating daemon

[y2kdis]

i'm trying to use phppgadmin to connect to postgresql and
except for the "www-data" account, no other account could log on to the database. i tried tweaking all the config files (pg_hba.conf, postgresql.conf, etc) but to no avail. it always gives me the 'FATAL: IDENT Authentication failed for user [username]".

would you know what app postgresql uses for the authentication process? earlier on, i removed several services which include portmapper, inetd, auth/identd, etc., to limit services and subsequently tighten security. perhaps i removed the app that postgre uses? but if that's the case, i wonder how www-data is able to make a connection, and i also doubt if i could remove a package without aptitude warning me of a broken dependency (for postgresql).

with psql, i have no problem accessing the database. it's only with the gui-based pgaccess and phppgadmin that i am having problem. anyway, i'm hoping that restoring the IDENT authenticaing daemon (which i don't know) for debian sarge 3.1 might solve the problem.

[kink]

postgresql, while having a lot of features, is quite difficult to work with. One part is the authentication. By default, it identifies local users just by checking their username. Since phppgadmin runs on your webserver, which runs under the www-data username, you can only log in to postgresql with the username www-data.

The solution is to log in as root on your system and then run psql, which will give you root access to the server. You can then configure other types of access (username+password for example). Just google around for some docs on how exactly to do that.

[kink]

BTW, if you don't absolutely need the features of postgresql, I'd advise to start with MySQL, since it offers the same general features but is a lot easier to get started with.

[y2kdis]

postgresql, while having a lot of features, is quite difficult to work with. One part is the authentication. By default, it identifies local users just by checking their username. Since phppgadmin runs on your webserver, which runs under the www-data username, you can only log in to postgresql with the username www-data

but the first page of phppgadmin asks for a username, so i would assume that it forwards the supplied username to postgresql which in turn authenticates the account. the different accounts i tried have been previously added to the postgresql list of users as well as in the linux users list.

i agree mysql is easier to use, however, we need to use the postgis extension and this is available only as extension to the postgresql database.