Why do I have postgres-xc?

I'm just taking the plunge into Postgresql. I'm using Kubuntu, and after reading the documentation as carefully as I could, I used the Muon Package Manager to download Postgresql 9.1.8

When I attempted to use initdb for the first time, the error message I got was:
initdb: Postgres-XC node name is mandatory

This was nowhere in the site documentation, so I figured there must be some Ubuntu quirk at work. I uninstalled everything, including the postgresql and postgres-xc folders that I found in /usr/...

Then I got the 9.2.3 source code and installed using ./configure --with-python --enable debug. I built it with make world

Once again, I use initdb for the first time, and I get the same message.

I've got nothing against postgres-xc. I'm sure it's a wonderful tool, but from the limited reading I've done so far it seems to be for very large high-performance installations. I'm just a newbie trying to learn the basics, and I want to be able to use the standard documentation without some advanced add-on with its own idiosyncracies.

Is there some way I can get rid of postgres-xc and leave myself with a more standard installation?

Just to provide more detail:

I attempted to remove postgres-xc by invoking

$ sudo apt-get remove postgres-xc

That started fine, but then failed with the following message:

Removing postgres-xc ...
* Stopping Postgres-XC datanodes
invoke-rc.d: initscript postgres-xc, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing postgres-xc (--remove):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 1


I also tried using

$ sudo dpkg --purge postgres-xc


No better luck there. My error message reads

* Stopping Postgres-XC datanodes
invoke-rc.d: initscript postgres-xc, action "stop" failed.
dpkg: error processing postgres-xc (--purge):
subprocess installed pre-removal script returned error exit status 1

So the OS was unable to stop the process prior to removal.

I'm at my half-wit's end at the moment, but I'm going to keep fiddling with it.

Apparently this is already reported as a bug on Ubuntu's bug reporting system. I've added my experience.

It would still be nice to find a workaround. Postgresql remains unusable for me.

Quick update -- I can actually use it on my own local home account. I can't create a data folder that can be shared between accounts.