Starting PostgreSQL

Sorry folks, a perennial one I'm sure ...

I have read the manual and Googled for a couple of hours but still can't
connect to PostgreSQL 8.3.4 (the PGDG RPMs running on an up to date
CentOS 5.2).

I continually get this message:

psql: could not connect to server: No such file or firectory
Is the server running locally and accepting
connections on Unix domain socket "/tmp/.s.PDSQL.0"?

Yes, the server is running as 'ps -aux' and 'netstat -l' and 'service
postgresql status' all confirm.

service postgresql start/stop/restart works without errors
pg_ctl start/stop/restart works without errors

There is no socket file in /tmp.
I believe I have PG configured to listen on port 5432 anyway:

listen_addresses = '*'
port = 5432

Is that enough to make PG listen on a port ... the docs seem to be
saying that?