psql problem

Background:  I recently upgraded my P166
Slackware based Linux system to glibc.

Among other things:
    Kernel 2.0.35
    XFree86 3.3.2
    egcs 1.0.3a
    glibc 2.0.6
    ncurses 4.2
    tcl/tk 8.0

I decided, since my database is still small,
to upgrade to postgres6.3.2.  I saved my tables
as SQL scripts and destroyed the original
database.

I then installed 6.3.2, including TCL/TK
bindings.  (This doesn't make any difference
to the problem below).

Now I have only partial use of psql.

"psql -f table1.txt mydatabase" will restore
a table.  I can look at/modify the table with
gtksql.

If I do "psql mydatabase" I get the following
results:

$ psql mydatabase
Welcome to the POSTGRESQL interactive sql
 monitor:
  Please read the file COPYRIGHT for copyright
  terms of POSTGRESQL

   type \? for help on slash commands
   type \q to quit
   type \g or terminate with semicolon to
execute query
 You are currently connected to the database:
 mydatabase

mydatabase=> \W@\W@\W@\W@\W@\W@. . . . forever
(mydatabase can be any one, for me as a user,
or as postgres superuser.  In the later case,
"\W@" becomes "\\207@".

When I attempt to use the debugger, it crashes
with a sig11  (nothing else but the debugger
does this.)

Can anyone give me a clue as to what's going on?

Thanks in advance,

John