Subject: BUG #19537: Authentication failed regardless of typing exactly my password set from sudo passwd postgres

From: PG Bug reporting form <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:56:25 +0000

The following bug has been logged on the website:

Bug reference:      19537
Logged by:          JOSHUA CABANILLAS
Email address:      [email-masked]
PostgreSQL version: 18.4
Operating system:   Ubuntu 26.04 LTS
Description:        

Hey, I'm using pg Admin 9.16 and have Ubuntu 26.04 LTS running as my OS.
So I tried to reinstall from scratch everything, just to see if this would
work. However, after reinstalling postgresql postgresql-contrib and pg Admin
from scratch step-by-step, and set my password and typed it exactly on the
pg Admin Register Server dialog it threw me the following error:

Unable to connect to server:

connection failed: connection to server at "127.0.0.1", port 5432 failed:
FATAL: password authentication failed for user "postgres"
connection to server at "127.0.0.1", port 5432 failed: FATAL: password
authentication failed for user "postgres"

So I just gave up on trying to fix it for my own and followed through this
forum to submit it as a bug report.
Any guidance for fixing this error will be appreciated.
Cheers.

---

From: "David G. Johnston" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 27 Jun 2026 08:32:59 -0700

> Any guidance for fixing this error will be appreciated.
The bug report form is not the place to obtain help using the product.  The
-general mailing list or other community resources like Slack and Discord
are.

That said, the password you need to supply when logging into PostgreSQL is
whatever password the database has recorded for the user in question.  The
operating system password is not relevant.

There are quite a few guides out there explaining how the PostgreSQL
authentication works on Linux. (The docs are a bit more generic.)  One
thing to note - usually you want to keep the postgres user authenticating
via peer authentication.  Removing pgAdmin from the stack for the moment
and getting everything working using psql is also advised.

David J.