Postgres: “the service is not responding…”
I woke up this morning, and started my laptop in order to do some work on OLM. I was exploring the implemented functionality yesterday, and I was constructing some task flow charts and use cases in order to help me design the interface. I planned on finishing up the charts and dive into the layout today.
So I fired up InstantRails, started the server, and tried to load the application:
500 Internal Server Error
Content-Type: text/html 500 Internal Server Error
At first I thought this was a minor problem: Postgres probably doesn’t boot on startup, and I’d just have to start the server myself. Start > Programs > PostgreSQL 8.3 > Start Server. In response:
The service is not responding to the control function.
More help is available by typing NET HELPMSG 2186.
Press <return> to continue…
… I didn’t do anything. It worked yesterday. It worked less than 24 hours ago. My only crime was taking notes on MS Word and logging off.
Like all brilliant software, typing “NET HELPMSG 2186″ and hitting <return> closes the Console and I get nothing. So I tried going about it with the SQL Shell. It tells me, “The ordinal 3873 could not be located in the dynamic link library LIBEAY32.dll”. Googling “Postgres Libeay32.dll” reveals that the file is located on System32 (c:/windows/system32/), and true enough, the file wasn’t there.
The two most helpful results from various Google searches of various error phrases combination are: PostgreSQL 8.0.0-beta4 pginstaller failure on Windows 2003 and LibEay32.dll.
It basically means: reinstall the damn thing. First uninstall Postgres, and it will warn you that it will leave the data folder untouched. Second, reinstall Postgres, and it will inform you that it will be using the settings it found in the data folder that was not deleted. When it prompts you for the password, you must enter the same password that you chose in the first installation. Restart the computer. Start > Programs > PostgreSQL 8.3 > Start Server. It will tell you that “The requested service has already been started.”
If I have to reinstall the software every time I want to work on this, God help me because I’m going to hurt someone.
The funny thing is, I still can’t find LIBEAY32.dll anywhere in the System folder.
Comments
Leo (January 14th, 2009, 3:05 pm):
I would probably kill someone too. That seems very very frustrating.
On a sidenote, though, the icons next to your links in the links page have no padding…just thought you might want to know!
Vera (January 16th, 2009, 10:06 am):
Something similar happened to me with MySQL (running as part of XAMPP) too. And at work, no less! I couldn’t afford to reinstall everything, as I had made changes to the DB which (obviously) had not been backed up.
Although, once my CPU’s cooler was changed, things started working fine …
My favorite error message has to be “The MySQL server has gone away” when I try to insert some data that is too large. It totally spikes my frustration level! :P
Brenda (January 17th, 2009, 1:02 pm):
Ah, the woes of software issues. It’s already bad enough that we have to debug code (which usually becomes a vicious cycle). But if the software decides to go wonky as well, that’s just adding oil on top of our misery.
Either way, may those error messages leave you well alone soon - so that you can proceed with whatever you’re doing. (:
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January 14th, 2009
11:01 am
Filed under 'Development, OLM'
