psql: FATAL: missing or erroneous pg_hba.conf file

Hi All,

new here, and pgsql in general. I currently use MySQL and now need to know
pgsql. I have set it up on my Linux box, CentOS 4-3, using an RPM from Dag
Wieer's repos. I am getting the following,

[racket(at)ibmlap lib]$ psql template1
psql: FATAL: missing or erroneous pg_hba.conf file
HINT: See server log for details.

after following here,

http://polder-linux.org/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=182

as I was eperiencing the same problem as the user at the bottom,

*Warning: pg_connect() unable to connect to PostgreSQL server: FATAL 1:
IDENT authentication failed for user "arjen"
*
Refer to PostgreSQL Administrator's guide, Chapter 4: Client Authentication.

You probably have this line in the /var/lib/pgsql/data/pg_hba.conf:

local all ident sameuser

(I know RedHat 8.0 does this). You need to change this into:

local all trust

This tells PostgreSQL to allow any UNIX user to log into the database as any
database user on a local socket.

*******************

and here,

http://serghei.net/docs/database/pgresql-7.1-admin/client-authentication.html

I'm a little lost. Could someone steer me in the right direction? Cheers.

Mark Sargent.