The install script for postgresql that is supposed to add the postgres
user does not work with the adduser packaged in shadow-utils-19990827-10.
The for the flags is incorrect.  This causes the package to be installed
with all of the files owned by root, which is insecure and makes it
impossible to start when it is initialized as a service with "su -l
postgres" In order to fix it, I had to manually add the user using the
command:
    "useradd -u 26 -o -g postgres -d /var/lib/pgsql -s /bin/bash -
c "PostgreSQL Server" -M -r postgres"
It appears that this version of useradd requests that the uid be the first
argument.

and then install the packages.  Now it works like a charm.