Hi again, Tom, I suspect you have Mac OS X Server installed, right? That's probably why your /etc/sysctl.conf file mentions that /etc/sysctl-macosxserver.conf file, while mine doesn't. The critical part in my /etc/sysctl.conf file looks like this: if [ -f /etc/sysctl.conf ]; then awk '{ if (!index($1, "#") && index($1, "=")) print $1 }' < /etc/sysctl.conf | while read do sysctl -w ${REPLY} done fi sysctl -w kern.sysv.shmmax=4194304 kern.sysv.shmmin=1 kern.sysv.shmmni=32 kern.sysv.shmseg=8 kern.sysv.shmall=1024 And frankly, to me it looks as if it means "if there is a /etc/sysctl.conf file, then read it and accept its settings. Then overwrite the sysctl settings with the default values, no matter what." I know that my understanding is wrong though, because I tried changing the settings on my local machine via the /etc/sysctl.conf file, and it worked. But not on the machine that's supposed to be our pg server. > As a debugging measure, see what happens if you change that last > sysctl line in /etc/rc. Okay, I will try that. Thanks, Maximilian Tyrtania | IT-Entwickler Mty@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx fischerAppelt Kommunikation GmbH Friedichstr. 149 | D-10117 Berlin | Germany Tel. ++49-30-726146-728 | Fax ++49-30-726146-710 www.fischerAppelt.de --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sitz der Gesellschaft: Hamburg Standorte: Hamburg, Berlin, Düsseldorf, Frankfurt, München, Stuttgart Die Gesellschaft ist Teil des Everpublic Networks Handelsregister: Amtsgericht Hamburg, HRB 49259 Geschäftsführer: Andreas Fischer-Appelt, Bernhard Fischer-Appelt +++ fischerAppelt macht Fernsehen: www.fischerappelt-tvmedia.com +++ ---------------------------(end of broadcast)--------------------------- TIP 9: In versions below 8.0, the planner will ignore your desire to choose an index scan if your joining column's datatypes do not match