postgres startup blues: pre-existing shared memory block (key 5432001, ID 0) is still in use

[Dan]

Nick Urbanik wrote:
> Dear Folks,
> 
> On 26/04/08 16:35 +1000, Dan wrote:
>> Did this behavior begin after doing some updates?
> 
> Yes; 
>> Can you try with an older kernel?
> 
> Yes, and it doesn't start.  I've rebooted back to the new kernel.
> 
>> I'm currently running kernel-2.6.24.3-50.fc8 and postgresql without
>> issue.
> 
> So was I until I foolishly rebooted!
> 
> I would really like some hints towards troubleshooting shared memory,
> not just to get this sorted, but to gain the tools to solve similar
> problems in the future.
> 

Interesting.

If you are able, you could attempt to run the postmaster with some 
debugging to see what is going on. Running the postmaster in single user 
mode may be another option (--single-user). See man postgres for more 
details.

Another option may be to run the postmaster using strace, but that may 
not be helpful due to the complexity of something like postgresql.

Failing all of that, you could ask for help on the postgresql mailing list.