blob and ImageView: backend dies when jdbc tries to read from it!

Help!

I must abandon postgresql if I cannot explain why the blob and the
large object example programs both fail with the same message:

java.sql.SQLException: IOError while reading from backend:
java.io.IOException: The backend has broken the connection. Possibly the
action you have attempted has caused it to close.
        at postgresql.PG_Stream.ReceiveChar(PG_Stream.java:183)
        at postgresql.fastpath.Fastpath.fastpath(Fastpath.java:111)
        at postgresql.fastpath.Fastpath.fastpath(Fastpath.java:185)
        at
postgresql.largeobject.LargeObject.write(LargeObject.java:147)
        at
postgresql.largeobject.LargeObject.write(LargeObject.java:162)
        at example.blobtest.ownapi_test1(blobtest.java:106)
        at example.blobtest.ownapi(blobtest.java:76)
        at example.blobtest.<init>(blobtest.java:50)
        at example.blobtest.main(blobtest.java:188)

I've tried both the jdbc driver distributed with 6.4.2, as well as the
jdbc6_4 which I got directly from Peter's site,
http://www.retep.org.uk/postgres/faq.html

I have run postmaster at debug level of 9 but see no helpful messages or
even a clear
indication that something has gone wrong, just

/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster: reaping dead processes...
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster: CleanupProc: pid 6339 exited with
status 138
/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postmaster: CleanupProc: reinitializing shared
memory and s
emaphores
shmem_exit(0) [#0]
binding ShmemCreate(key=52e325, size=831176)

This gives me a scarey feeling that investing my time in postgresql
might not
be wise just now.

Can anyone give a clue what might be wrong here?

I compiled this myself on a Sun Sparc Solaris 2.5.1.
Nothing unusual about install.
The "basic" example does work, and interactive
psql works fine too.

But blobtest and ImageView examples both have the ientical
above error message.

Thanks in advance!
Russ Welti
Univ of WA
Seattle WA  USA