viewing currently executing query

Hello everyone,

I use an app (developed by someone else) that uses Postgres 8.3 as
backend. The app in question starts up for a rather long time, about 10
minutes, during which Postgres is heavily loaded (several processes each
eating 50%-100% of CPU on the multicore server).

However, when I do "select * from pg_stat_activity" during the startup,
all the connections seem to be idle (see below).

I have found here info that current query stats have to be explicitly
turned on in postgresql.conf - is that true?

http://systemsadmin.info/databases/articles/viewing-current-postgresql-queries

Is there any other way of viewing what exactly is Postgresql doing, in
terms of executed query? I would obviously like to reduce the startup time.

postgres=# select * from pg_stat_activity;

datid | datname | procpid | usesysid | usename |
current_query | waiting | xact_start |
query_start | backend_start |
client_addr | client_port
-------+-----------+---------+----------+----------+---------------------------------+---------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-------------------------------+-----------------+-------------
16385 | dlibra_db | 15057 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:43.594439+01 | 2008-11-05 10:42:23.880847+01 | 193.201.137.130 |
58164
16385 | dlibra_db | 15066 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:44:33.45632+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:51.38554+01 | 193.201.137.130 |
58169
16385 | dlibra_db | 15063 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:29.711821+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:29.707715+01 | 193.201.137.131 |
49732
16385 | dlibra_db | 15067 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:54.712203+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:54.708453+01 | 193.201.137.131 |
49734
16385 | dlibra_db | 15062 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:43.460778+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:26.384412+01 | 193.201.137.130 |
58167
16385 | dlibra_db | 15068 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:44:33.517198+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:54.710977+01 | 193.201.137.131 |
49735
16385 | dlibra_db | 15064 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:53.531007+01 | 2008-11-05 10:43:29.710728+01 | 193.201.137.131 |
49733
16385 | dlibra_db | 15051 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:12.450003+01 | 2008-11-05 10:41:46.381951+01 | 193.201.137.130 |
58162
16385 | dlibra_db | 15056 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE>
| f | | 2008-11-05
10:43:23.523071+01 | 2008-11-05 10:42:14.705713+01 | 193.201.137.131 |
49731
11511 | postgres | 15098 | 10 | postgres | select * from
pg_stat_activity; | f | 2008-11-05 10:44:41.191526+01 | 2008-11-05
10:44:41.191526+01 | 2008-11-05 10:44:21.141447+01 | |
-1
16385 | dlibra_db | 15024 | 16384 | dlibra | <IDLE> in
transaction | f | 2008-11-05 10:39:20.351713+01 |
2008-11-05 10:39:20.356763+01 | 2008-11-05 10:38:26.374313+01 |
193.201.137.130 | 58145
(11 rows)