Unable to start Postgresql so I can run Metasploit

Hello,
After searching various threads here on how to get Posgresql running, I am still having no luck

As root or using sudo to service postgresql start the command seems to execute and then I am back in my shell prompt.

Some articles said to run ss -ant to see if postgres is listening, but no reply. I tried ss -lntp | grep port expecting to see the ports listening but no joy.

I did a apt-get dist-upgrade and rebooted and tried again, no joy.

Tried logging in to msfconsole to see this:
~$ sudo msfconsole
[-] Failed to connect to the database: could not connect to server: Connection refused
Is the server running on host "localhost" (::1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?
could not connect to server: Connection refused
Is the server running on host "localhost" (127.0.0.1) and accepting
TCP/IP connections on port 5432?

then: msf > db_status[*] postgresql selected, no connection

then:
msf > db_connect postgresql
msf > db_status[*] postgresql selected, no connection

I tried also connecting pointing to the database.yml file to no end.

Where did I go wrong?
Thanks!

Right, I run that command to start postgresql and then when I run the ss -ant this is what I get:

$ sudo service postgresql start
[sudo] password for me:
me@Kali:~$
me@Kali:~$ ss -ant
State Recv-Q Send-Q Local Address:Port Peer Address:Port
dave@daveKali:~$

So something is wrong with postgres not starting.

Should I uninstall and reinstall?

I saw a forum post about checking the config file to verify that posgresql was running on 5432 and it is.

Would a recent dist-upgrade reset all config files back to examples? I saw some examples but no config files in
me@Kali:/usr/share/postgresql/10$ ls
catalog_version pg_ident.conf.sample recovery.conf.sample
contrib pg_service.conf.sample snowball_create.sql
conversion_create.sql postgres.bki sql_features.txt
extension postgres.description system_views.sql
information_schema.sql postgresql.conf.sample timezonesets
man postgres.shdescription tsearch_data
pg_hba.conf.sample psqlrc.sample

/etc/postgresql/10/main/postgresql.conf

What do I need to do to get postgresql 10 started?

Hi,
Let me ask this:
If using your command from your first reply:
"service postgresql start"
and then checking it with ss -ant shows nothing, then what can we do to get postgresql running. I can start msfconsole no issue, just no db connection.

Should I remove and reinstall postgresql before metasploit?

*edit* and as this is Posgresql 10, could that be an issue?

*Solved*

I did some digging and found that I should try to use systemctl to start posgresql.

This showed me this line:
postgresql@10-main loaded failed failed PostgreSQL Cluster 10-main

So I then ran
sudo systemctl start postgresql@10-main
Job for [email protected] failed because the service did not take the steps required by its unit configuration.
See "systemctl status [email protected]" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
me@Kali:/$ sudo systemctl status postgresql@10-main
● [email protected] - PostgreSQL Cluster 10-main
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/[email protected]; indirect; vendor preset: disabled)
Drop-In: /lib/systemd/system/[email protected]
└─kali_postgresql.conf
Active: failed (Result: protocol) since Fri 2018-02-02 12:44:10 MST; 17s ago
Process: 4217 ExecStart=/usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster --skip-systemctl-redirect 10-main start (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
Process: 4215 ExecStartPre=/usr/share/kali-defaults/postgresql_reduce_shared_buffers 10/main (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: 2018-02-02 19:44:10.816 UTC [4222] LOG: listening on IPv4 address "127.0.0.1", port 5432
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: 2018-02-02 19:44:10.818 UTC [4222] LOG: listening on Unix socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432"
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: 2018-02-02 19:44:10.838 UTC [4222] LOG: could not open configuration file "/etc/postgresql/10/main/pg_hba.conf": Permission denied
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: 2018-02-02 19:44:10.838 UTC [4222] FATAL: could not load pg_hba.conf
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: 2018-02-02 19:44:10.839 UTC [4222] LOG: database system is shut down
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: pg_ctl: could not start server
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali postgresql@10-main[4217]: Examine the log output.
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali systemd[1]: [email protected]: PID file /var/run/postgresql/10-main.pid not readable (yet?) after start: No such file or directory
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali systemd[1]: [email protected]: Failed with result 'protocol'.
Feb 02 12:44:10 Kali systemd[1]: Failed to start PostgreSQL Cluster 10-main.

That led me to do these steps:

root@daveKali:/var/run/postgresql/10-main.pg_stat_tmp# chmod 664 /etc/postgresql/10/main/pg_hba.conf
root@daveKali:/var/run/postgresql/10-main.pg_stat_tmp# systemctl start postgresql@10-main
root@daveKali:/var/run/postgresql/10-main.pg_stat_tmp# systemctl status postgresql
● postgresql.service - PostgreSQL RDBMS
Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service; disabled; vendor preset: disabled)
Active: active (exited) since Fri 2018-02-02 12:28:31 MST; 19min ago
Process: 4160 ExecStart=/bin/true (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
Main PID: 4160 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)

Feb 02 12:28:31 daveKali systemd[1]: Starting PostgreSQL RDBMS...
Feb 02 12:28:31 daveKali systemd[1]: Started PostgreSQL RDBMS.
root@daveKali:/var/run/postgresql/10-main.pg_stat_tmp# ss -lntp | grep post
LISTEN 0 128 127.0.0.1:5432 0.0.0.0:* users:(("postgres",pid=4309,fd=6))
LISTEN 0 128 [::1]:5432 [::]:* users:(("postgres",pid=4309,fd=3))
root@daveKali:/var/run/postgresql/10-main.pg_stat_tmp#

So now Postgresql is up and running.

Ran a msfdb reinit and msfconsole came up no errors.

Thanks!

#/etc/init.d/postgresql
service --status-all
service postgresql start
service postgresql status

#/usr/bin/msfconsole
msfdb init
msfconsole
msf > db_status