Strange behaviour: create database hangs (v 8.4.4)

Hello

When running the command 'create database test' as user postgres from
within psql, the command hangs indefinitely.

I've installed 8.4.4 from source on a Slackware 13.0 box with kernel
2.6.29, GCC 4.3.3 and OpenSSL 0.9.8n with self-signed certificates.

Built with ./configure --prefix=/opt/postgresql-8.4.4 --with-openssl

Running under daemontools as follows:

setuidgid postgres postgres -i -p 8910 -l -d /srv/data/postgresql 2>&1

psql run as postgres user as follows:

psql -p 8910

There is no indication in the logfiles of errors.

Any possible reasons why this may occur? What can I do to investigate
this further?

Thanks
Dale