Gvmd service won't start

I followed the source build documentation and got it (partially) going. Seems the gvmd service won’t start.

× gvmd.service - Greenbone Vulnerability Manager daemon (gvmd)
     Loaded: loaded (/etc/systemd/system/gvmd.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Tue 2025-02-25 09:14:01 EST; 2min 23s ago
   Duration: 12ms
       Docs: man:gvmd(8)
    Process: 944 ExecStart=/usr/local/sbin/gvmd --foreground --osp-vt-update=/run/ospd/ospd-openvas.sock --listen-group=gvm (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 944 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
        CPU: 13ms

Feb 25 09:14:01 blackberry systemd[1]: gvmd.service: Scheduled restart job, restart counter is at 5.
Feb 25 09:14:01 blackberry systemd[1]: Stopped gvmd.service - Greenbone Vulnerability Manager daemon (gvmd).
Feb 25 09:14:01 blackberry systemd[1]: gvmd.service: Start request repeated too quickly.
Feb 25 09:14:01 blackberry systemd[1]: gvmd.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Feb 25 09:14:01 blackberry systemd[1]: Failed to start gvmd.service - Greenbone Vulnerability Manager daemon (gvmd).

From the log I get this:

md manage:WARNING:2025-02-25 14h14.01 utc:943: init_manage_open_db: sql_open failed
md   main:MESSAGE:2025-02-25 14h14.01 utc:944:    Greenbone Vulnerability Manager version 25.1.1 (DB revision 257)
md manage:WARNING:2025-02-25 14h14.01 utc:944: sql_open: PQconnectStart to 'gvmd' failed: connection to server on socket "/var/run/postgresql/.s.PGSQL.5432" failed: No such file or directory
        Is the server running locally and accepting connections on that socket?
md manage:WARNING:2025-02-25 14h14.01 utc:944: init_manage_open_db: sql_open failed

database is running…

● postgresql.service - PostgreSQL RDBMS
     Loaded: loaded (/lib/systemd/system/postgresql.service; enabled; preset: enabled)
     Active: active (exited) since Tue 2025-02-25 09:13:59 EST; 13min ago
    Process: 926 ExecStart=/bin/true (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
   Main PID: 926 (code=exited, status=0/SUCCESS)
        CPU: 868us

Feb 25 09:13:59 blackberry systemd[1]: Starting postgresql.service - PostgreSQL RDBMS...
Feb 25 09:13:59 blackberry systemd[1]: Finished postgresql.service - PostgreSQL RDBMS.

same error after a reboot

The cause is definitively that postgres is not running as expected. Could you check your setup by running pg_lsclusters?

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