Postgres 8.1 hangs at boot time due to password authentication for user postgres.

Dear PostgreSQL Team,

after upgrading from PostgreSQL 7.4 to 8.1 on my Debian PC (Testing Release)
PostgreSQL hangs at boot time.
This is because user "postgres" was set to password authentication in my
database.
The function "/usr/bin/pg_ctlcluster - cluster_port_ready" tries to
connect to
the database using "psql" which prompts for the password then. But the
password
cannot be entered at boot time.
Changing user "postgres" to "ident" authentification removes the
problem. But
in my opinion it should be possible to use password authentication.

Regards
Rolf