Trouble starting postgresql

I just got a copy of a VM running SLES10 in which I have Postgresql. I try to start it using the command "postgresql start" but it returns an error message: "could not start postmaster". On the old machine it works fine. The only things I did since copying the machine was to change its IP Ad开发者_开发百科dress and name, install VMWare Tools and delete the postgresql logs directory /.../postgres/pg_log (I recreated it afterwards). I tried restarting the machine but I still get the error. What can I do to determine the cause of the problem?

What can I do to determine the cause of the problem?

Check out the Postgres and system log files

My bet is that there is some problem with accessing the data directory e.g. the account running the postmaster does not have read/write access to that directory.

Edit
You can try to start Postgres "manually" (as opposed to the system provided scripts) by running:

pg_ctl -D /path/to/data/dir start

then you might be able to see error messages on the console. Make sure you are running this as the postgres user