I ran into the same issue over the weekend. If you look in the pgsql-ports email archives or the cygwin email archives you will see that this is a known problem with cygwin 1.1.8. (I believe it is fixed in current sources for cygwin). The workaround is to install cygwin 1.1.7. That solved the problem for me. thanks, --Barry Peep Krusberg wrote: > hello! > > That's my very first day with postgres, so please be kind... > > - cygwin installed OK > - it seems that postgres compiled & installed OK > - initdb created db structures > - ipc-daemon started OK > - but postmaster -i fails with messages: > > c:\cygwin\usr\local\pgsql\bin\postgres.exe: *** > recreate_mmaps_after_fork_failed > Startup failed - abort > NOTICE: IpcMemoryDetach: shmdt(0x0x71e0000): Invalid argument > NOTICE: IpcMemoryDetach: shmdt(0x0x70b0000): Invalid argument > NOTICE: IpcMemoryDetach: shmdt(0x0x71a0000): Invalid argument > > I'm able to run and use postgres in the backend mode. > > Any help appreciated. > > Peep