[isf-wifidog] postgres sql authentication via install.php script

[Michael Way]

As the subject says, I'm having an issue with the installation script not
being able to communicate with the postgresql server. It seems to me that
the script isn't transmitting the correct information to the server.

some background first:
OS: Linux Fedora Core 8 i386 (with all of the latest patches installed
as of today)
psql (PostgreSQL) 8.2.6
PHP 5.2.4 (cli) (built: Oct 16 2007 09:13:35)

Postgres is set up with the wifidog account and database and appears functional:

[wifidog at test1 ~]$ psql -l
        List of databases
   Name    |  Owner   | Encoding
-----------+----------+----------
 postgres  | postgres | UTF8
 template0 | postgres | UTF8
 template1 | postgres | UTF8
 wifidog   | wifidog  | UTF8
(4 rows)

To make sure the password is what it should be I did this:
[wifidog at test1 wifidog]$ psql
wifidog=> ALTER USER wifidog WITH PASSWORD 'wifidogtest';
wifidog=> \q

Thus far the install.php script runs fine (in my firefox browser). I
get through all pages just fine *until*
the "Database Access Configuration" page with:
Host: localhost
DB name: wifidog
Username: wifidog
Password: wifidogtest

I click "next" and on the next page I get  "Unable to connect to database"...

Although I can connect to the database on the command line fine:
[wifidog at test1 ~]$ psql -h localhost -U wifidog -d wifidog
Welcome to psql 8.2.6, the PostgreSQL interactive terminal.
...

If I check the web logs I find two things of interest from the last
php page I clicked "next" on:

[Tue Mar 18 14:27:35 2008] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Notice:  Use
of undefined constant posix_getpwuid - assumed 'posix_getpwuid' in
/var/www/html/wifidog-auth/wifidog/install.php on line 425, referer:
http://127.0.0.1/install.php

and

[Tue Mar 18 14:31:44 2008] [error] [client 127.0.0.1] PHP Warning:
pg_connect() [<a href='function.pg-connect'>function.pg-connect</a>]:
Unable to connect to PostgreSQL server: could not connect to server:
Permission denied\n\tIs the server running on host
&quot;localhost&quot; and accepting\n\tTCP/IP connections on port
5432? in /var/www/html/wifidog-auth/wifidog/install.php on line 550,
referer: http://127.0.0.1/install.php

I wrote a little php script to see if the values I know to be true will work:
<?php
$ptr_connexion = pg_connect("host=localhost dbname=wifidog user=wifidog password
=wifidogtest");
        if ($ptr_connexion == TRUE) {
            print "Success!\n";
        }
        else {
                print "NO!\n";
        }

and it appears to return "Success!"

Finally, I thought I would show off the bottom of my completely
unsecured pg_hba.conf file so you know everything is open:
# TYPE  DATABASE    USER        CIDR-ADDRESS          METHOD
local   all         all                               trust all
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all         all         127.0.0.1/32          trust all
host    all         all         192.168.0.0/16          trust all

and my postgresql.conf relevant lines:
listen_addresses = '*'          # what IP address(es) to listen on;
port = 5432                             # (change requires restart)

I also tried with password encryption on and off (why not? nothing else works).

I was even able to connect to the server from a remote machine.

It seems to me that the install.php script isnt' getting the correct
information about the database
from what's been inputted in the script and what shows up on the last
viable install.php web screen (whose values
I gave above).

I'm not a php expert, but have set up postgresql and mysql on a
variety of machines
and I'm an old unix lackey. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.
Sorry for the long email...

cheers,
mike