Error starting postgresql server on ubuntu

I recently stopped the postgresql database (that was working perfectly), and after a couple of days, when I try to start it, I get the errors:

2011-01-03 23:56:27 CLST LOG:  could not translate host name "localhost", service "5432" to address: Name or service not known
2011-01-03 23:56:27 CLST WARNING:  could not create listen socket for "localhost"
2011-01-03 23:56:27 CLST FATAL:  could not create any TCP/IP sockets

I'm running Ubuntu 9.1, and I'm using the usuals

/etc/init.d/postgresql-8.4 start and stop

Any hints ?

Solution 1:

Check ownership and permissions on /etc/hosts?

Specify 127.0.0.1 in the config to isolate the problem.

Solution 2:

Either your /etc/hosts or /etc/nsswitch.conf are messed up, nscd, if in use, is behaving crazily, or something is busted in libc.