diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
index 4487d0cfd1..2dc2b82d9a 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/installation.sgml
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ su - postgres
       <application>make</application> programs or older <acronym>GNU</acronym> <application>make</application> versions will <emphasis>not</emphasis> work.
       (<acronym>GNU</acronym> <application>make</application> is sometimes installed under
       the name <filename>gmake</filename>.)  To test for <acronym>GNU</acronym>
-      <application>make</application> enter:
+      <application>make</application> and check its version, enter:
 <screen>
 <userinput>make --version</userinput>
 </screen>
@@ -385,8 +385,8 @@ su - postgres
     This script will run a number of tests to determine values for various
     system dependent variables and detect any quirks of your
     operating system, and finally will create several files in the
-    build tree to record what it found.  You can also run
-    <filename>configure</filename> in a directory outside the source
+    build tree to record what it found.  If it does not print any error messages, configuration was successful.
+    You can also run <filename>configure</filename> in a directory outside the source
     tree, if you want to keep the build directory separate.  This
     procedure is also called a
     <indexterm><primary>VPATH</primary></indexterm><firstterm>VPATH</firstterm>
@@ -1610,6 +1610,15 @@ su - postgres
 <screen>
 All of PostgreSQL successfully made. Ready to install.
 </screen>
+    If you see an error message like:
+<screen>
+ERROR: `flex' is missing on your system. It is needed to create the
+file `bootscanner.c'. You can either get flex from a GNU mirror site
+or download an official distribution of PostgreSQL, which contains
+pre-packaged flex output.
+</screen>
+    then one or more of the packages <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> requires is not installed.
+    See <xref linkend="install-requirements"/> for the required packages.
    </para>
 
   <para>
diff --git a/doc/src/sgml/start.sgml b/doc/src/sgml/start.sgml
index 5b73557835..4e3aaaac86 100644
--- a/doc/src/sgml/start.sgml
+++ b/doc/src/sgml/start.sgml
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@
 
    <para>
     If you are not sure whether <productname>PostgreSQL</productname>
-    is already available or whether you can use it for your
-    experimentation then you can install it yourself.  Doing so is not
+    is already available for your experimentation,
+    you can install it yourself.  Doing so is not
     hard and it can be a good exercise.
     <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> can be installed by any
     unprivileged user; no superuser (<systemitem>root</systemitem>)
@@ -83,7 +83,7 @@
 
      <listitem>
       <para>
-       The user's client (frontend) application that wants to perform
+       The user's client (frontend), an application that wants to perform
        database operations.  Client applications can be very diverse
        in nature:  a client could be a text-oriented tool, a graphical
        application, a web server that accesses the database to
@@ -99,7 +99,7 @@
 
    <para>
     As is typical of client/server applications, the client and the
-    server can be on different hosts.  In that case they communicate
+    server can be on different machines or networks.  In that case they communicate
     over a TCP/IP network connection.  You should keep this in mind,
     because the files that can be accessed on a client machine might
     not be accessible (or might only be accessible using a different
@@ -153,7 +153,7 @@
 <screen>
 <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>createdb mydb</userinput>
 </screen>
-    If this produces no response then this step was successful and you can skip over the
+    If this exits without any error message then this step was successful and you can skip over the
     remainder of this section.
    </para>
 
@@ -168,7 +168,7 @@ createdb: command not found
 <screen>
 <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>/usr/local/pgsql/bin/createdb mydb</userinput>
 </screen>
-    The path at your site might be different.  Contact your site
+    The path at your site's server might be different.  Contact your site
     administrator or check the installation instructions to
     correct the situation.
    </para>
@@ -240,12 +240,11 @@ createdb: database creation failed: ERROR:  permission denied to create database
    <para>
     You can also create databases with other names.
     <productname>PostgreSQL</productname> allows you to create any
-    number of databases at a given site.  Database names must have an
-    alphabetic first character and are limited to 63 bytes in
-    length.  A convenient choice is to create a database with the same
-    name as your current user name.  Many tools assume that database
-    name as the default, so it can save you some typing.  To create
-    that database, simply type:
+    number of databases at a given site.  Database names are limited to 63 bytes in
+    length. Database names longer than 63 bytes will be truncated. A convenient 
+    choice is to create a database with the same name as your current user name. 
+    Many tools assume that database name as the default, so it 
+    can save you some typing. To create that database, simply type:
 <screen>
 <prompt>$</prompt> <userinput>createdb</userinput>
 </screen>
@@ -355,7 +354,7 @@ mydb=#
    <para>
     The last line printed out by <command>psql</command> is the
     prompt, and it indicates that <command>psql</command> is listening
-    to you and that you can type <acronym>SQL</acronym> queries into a
+    to you and that you can type commands and <acronym>SQL</acronym> queries into a
     work space maintained by <command>psql</command>.  Try out these
     commands:
     <indexterm><primary>version</primary></indexterm>