could not bind IPv4 socket: Address already in use

I'm just getting started with postgresql and things are going pretty well. However, I
seem to be having trouble connecting to my database via TCP/IP.  I'm assuming that
my problems are related to the message I get at startup (using  "postmaster -D data -
i"). The postmaster starts but produces this message:

LOG: could not bind IPv4 socket: Address already in use
HINT: is another postmaster already running on port 5432. If not, wait a few seconds
and retry.

Looking into this a bit it seems that the most common issue here is 5432 being
claimed by an extra postmaster or another application. However, using "ps -ef" I can
confirm that NO other postmasters are running and using "netstat -a" I can confirm
that 5432 IS free so I'm at a loss.

Oddly, postgres does claim 5432 at startup and releases it at shutdown the way I
suspect it should but I still get that message. I came across a discussion at
http://www.dbforums.com/archive/index.php/t-968701.html which seems to indicate
that the  message can be ignored in which case I should look somewhere else for my
TCP/IP issues.

Has anyone else run into anything like? I'm running Postgresql 7.4.2 on SUSE 8.4.
Any thoughts are greatly appreciated.

.

--
Eric Hillmuth
GIS Systems Developer
Vermont Agency of Natural Resources
802-241-3616