I’ve found myself trying postgres over mysql for a few things and had some trouble accessing the db server at all at first. So here’s how you first access the server:

$ su -          # su to root
# su - postgres # su to postgres
$ psql          # access the server

That wasn’t so hard now was it? Once I’m in the psql shell, I tend to issue the following SQL statement so my primary user has unlimited access, to make things easier for development: