Luis
Either your server isn't running ('pidof postmaster' as root should show you that) or you have a permissions issue.
Check the log file in /usr/local/pgsql/data/server.log and see if it gives any clues.
Also you could try skipping ahead and setting up the service (.../init.d/postgeresql) and restarting pg under that as I've had weird permissions problems starting from the command line in the past.
- Steve
