Can't authenticate user with postgresql on Linux Centos

Question

PG 9.4 Centos 6.7

I successfully installed Postgres 9.4 on Centos. I am checking my authentication through pgAdmin. I can create new users etc with the Centos terminal.

However, after the user and passwords are created, I can't use them to access localhost on Postgres. I get the error: 'FATAL: Ident authentication failed for user "pguser"'

The weird thing is, I can login using my linux username and NO password. However, as soon as I create a new username and password, it doesn't work.

/var/lib/pgsql/9.4/data/pg_hba.conf file as in password authentication failed for user "postgres":

# Database administrative login by UNIX sockets
local   all         postgres                          ident
# TYPE  DATABASE        USER            ADDRESS                 METHOD
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                     md5
# IPv4 local connections:
host    all             all             127.0.0.1/32            md5
# IPv6 local connections:
host    all             all             ::1/128                 md5

How do I set up a new superuser and password that will properly authenticate? (This user is going to be used to read/write to pg in a ruby on rails app)

Edit: the answer provided below works. You may have to restart your computer or find a good way to kill/restart pg, looks like sometimes the changes to the pg_hba.conf file don't take.

Its the method you are using to connect to the database.. You need to set it to password — ryekayo
– ryekayo, Commented May 9, 2016 at 19:31

ryekayo · Accepted Answer · 2016-05-09 19:34:25Z

1

You need to configure your pg_hba.conf file to accept password as the METHOD to get in. If I am reading this correctly, you are attempting to log in to postgres locally with a user and password you configured. So you should configure pg_hba.conf as such:

# Database administrative login by UNIX sockets
local   all         postgres                          ident
# TYPE  DATABASE        USER            ADDRESS                 METHOD
# "local" is for Unix domain socket connections only
local   all             all                                     password

After this is done, you should be able to log in locally with the username and password.

answered May 9, 2016 at 19:34

ryekayo

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11 Comments

GavinBelson Over a year ago

I commented out what I had in the pg_hba.conf file and inserted the lines you recommended. Created a new user in the terminal, and still getting the same error :(

ryekayo Over a year ago

Hmm ok, let me take a look at their documentation and figure out what to do. Its been a while since i used postgres :)

GavinBelson Over a year ago

With the proposed settings my Linux username doesn't work either to access localhost

GavinBelson Over a year ago

thank you. Yeah, it's probably something with this file, I can't seem to figure it out though. All this worked perfectly on Ubuntu.

ryekayo Over a year ago

Did you try restarting postgres once the change is made? There are only two types of password authentication: md5 and password. Md5 uses MD5 encrypted passwords whereas password uses cleartext.. Cleartext should work in this case...

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