Creating database cluster

Hello,

I am setting up PostgreSQL version 7.2.1, with all default settings on a
BSD platform  ,4.5-RELEASE FreeBSD.
I have created user postgres and chown /usr/local/pgsql/data to
postgres. Kept postgres group as wheel. On initialization of the
database the following was obtained:==>

     hostname# initdb -D /usr/local/pgsql/data
     /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
     permission denied
     /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
     permission denied
     The program
         '/usr/local/pgsql/bin/postgres'
     needed by initdb does not belong to PostgreSQL version 7.2.1,
     or
     there may be a configuration problem.

     This was the error message issued by that program:
     /usr/local/pgsql/bin/initdb: cannot create /dev/null:
     permission denied

Should this be run as root, since it is attempting to do a 'create
/dev/null', the Administrator's Guide shows that it should be executed
as postgres. [All executables in  /usr/local/pgsql/bin have 755
permissions.
Advice, solutions?
Thanks

---   Joe   ---