I installed postgresql 9.2 from add-apt-repository ppa:pitti/postgresql using apt-get install postgresql-9.2 At the end of the install and every time I try to launch postgresql by using the following command /etc/init.d/postgresql start or service postgresql start I get this error: Error: could not exec /usr/lib/postgresql/9.2/bin/pg_ctl /usr/lib/postgresql/9.2/bin/pg_ctl start -D /var/lib/postgresql/9.2/main -l /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.2-main.log -s -o -c config_file="/etc/postgresql/9.2/main/postgresql.conf" : [fail] invoke-rc.d: initscript postgresql, action "start" failed. dpkg: error processing postgresql-9.2 (--configure): subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1 Errors were encountered while processing: postgresql-9.2 E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1) I have tried everything found here: How to thoroughly purge and reinstall postgresql on ubuntu and here: Eliminating non working postgresql installations on ubuntu 10-04 and starting af. I have also done dpkg -P --force-remove-reinstreq postgresql-client-9.2 in my attempt to remove everything postgres related from my server. After removing postgresql I have used dpkg --get-selections | grep postg To be sure there is nothing left and I can do a clean install. I have also made sure that the files and folders mentioned in the error message have the right permissions. The /var/log/postgresql/postgresql-9.2-main.log file is empty. I have tried installing every postgresql version from 8.3 to 9.2 and I get the same error on every time. I once managed to compile postgresql from the source provided on their website but then I encountered weird errors with psycopg2 so I figured I'd install postgresql this way and avoid those errors. Also when I type apt-get install postgresql it by default tries to install the 8.3 version even when I can find the package by typing apt-get install postgresql-9.2.