When PostgreSQL is started as a service, you can have this error :
LOG: database system was shut down at 2013-06-13 00:54:33 UTC
LOG: autovacuum launcher started
LOG: database system is ready to accept connections
FATAL: role "John" does not exist
done
server started
This happens when you run pg_ctl start with the -w (wait) option like Bearsampp, because it will try a test connection with a user that does not exist (in your case). But that’s not really a problem (except for the confusing error message), because that proves that the server is up.
