On Thu, 3 Apr 2003 pgsql-bugs@postgresql.org wrote:
> Raouf (raimeur@cisco.com) reports a bug with a severity of 2
> The lower the number the more severe it is.
>
> Short Description
> some system tables are not accessible
>
> description:
> Some system tables are not accessible, for instance:
> 1- pg_user
> 2- pg_tables
>
> I have not tried all the system tables so probably others are missing.
>
> output:
> testCoverage=# select * from pg_tables;
> less: not found
> testCoverage=#
This seems to be saying your pager isn't there, not anything about
the table itself.
Try doing
\pset pager off
before your query and see if it still fails.