Trouble setting up Postgres PostGIS database with GeoServer

Question

I made a table in a Postgres database with a name image_id and geometry column in it. Here is what the schema looks like:

CREATE TABLE images
(
  "name" character varying(256) NOT NULL,
  image_id integer NOT NULL,
  srid integer NOT NULL DEFAULT 4326,
  images_geom geometry,
  CONSTRAINT images_pkey PRIMARY KEY (name),
  CONSTRAINT enforce_dims_images_geom CHECK (st_ndims(images_geom) = 2),
  CONSTRAINT enforce_srid_images_geom CHECK (st_srid(images_geom) = 4326)
)
WITH (
  OIDS=FALSE
);
ALTER TABLE images OWNER TO postgres;
ALTER TABLE images ALTER COLUMN images_geom SET STATISTICS 4326;

I used this SQL statement to insert a test record into the table:

insert into images (name, image_id, srid, images_geom) values ('image1.png', 1, 4326, ST_GeomFromText('point(21.12312 -125.01010)', 4326));

Then in GeoServer I created a new PostGIS store and connected it to the database I made in Postgres. When I try to create a new layer and connect it with the new store I created it errors out and displays this error message:

java.lang.RuntimeException: Error occurred while building the resources for the configuration page
    at org.geoserver.web.data.layer.NewLayerPage.buildLayerInfo(NewLayerPage.java:202)
    at org.geoserver.web.data.layer.NewLayerPage$3.onClick(NewLayerPage.java:173)
    at org.geoserver.web.wicket.SimpleAjaxLink$1.onClick(SimpleAjaxLink.java:44)
    at org.apache.wicket.ajax.markup.html.AjaxLink$1.onEvent(AjaxLink.java:65)
    at org.apache.wicket.ajax.AjaxEventBehavior.respond(AjaxEventBehavior.java:163)
    at org.apache.wicket.ajax.AbstractDefaultAjaxBehavior.onRequest(AbstractDefaultAjaxBehavior.java:297)
    at org.apache.wicket.request.target.component.listener.BehaviorRequestTarget.processEvents(BehaviorRequestTarget.java:104)
    at org.apache.wicket.request.AbstractRequestCycleProcessor.processEvents(AbstractRequestCycleProcessor.java:91)
    at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.processEventsAndRespond(RequestCycle.java:1239)
    at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.step(RequestCycle.java:1316)
    at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.steps(RequestCycle.java:1418)
    at org.apache.wicket.RequestCycle.request(RequestCycle.java:532)
    at org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketFilter.doGet(WicketFilter.java:356)
    at org.apache.wicket.protocol.http.WicketServlet.doGet(WicketServlet.java:124)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.ServletWrappingController.handleRequestInternal(ServletWrappingController.java:158)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.AbstractController.handleRequest(AbstractController.java:153)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.mvc.SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.handle(SimpleControllerHandlerAdapter.java:48)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doDispatch(DispatcherServlet.java:875)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.DispatcherServlet.doService(DispatcherServlet.java:809)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.processRequest(FrameworkServlet.java:571)
    at org.springframework.web.servlet.FrameworkServlet.doGet(FrameworkServlet.java:501)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:707)
    at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:820)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHolder.handle(ServletHolder.java:487)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1093)
    at org.geoserver.filters.ThreadLocalsCleanupFilter.doFilter(ThreadLocalsCleanupFilter.java:23)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.vfny.geoserver.filters.SetCharacterEncodingFilter.doFilter(SetCharacterEncodingFilter.java:108)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:265)
    at org.acegisecurity.intercept.web.FilterSecurityInterceptor.invoke(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:107)
    at org.acegisecurity.intercept.web.FilterSecurityInterceptor.doFilter(FilterSecurityInterceptor.java:72)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.ui.ExceptionTranslationFilter.doFilter(ExceptionTranslationFilter.java:124)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.providers.anonymous.AnonymousProcessingFilter.doFilter(AnonymousProcessingFilter.java:125)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.ui.rememberme.RememberMeProcessingFilter.doFilter(RememberMeProcessingFilter.java:142)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.wrapper.SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.doFilter(SecurityContextHolderAwareRequestFilter.java:81)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.ui.AbstractProcessingFilter.doFilter(AbstractProcessingFilter.java:271)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.ui.logout.LogoutFilter.doFilter(LogoutFilter.java:110)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.context.HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.doFilter(HttpSessionContextIntegrationFilter.java:249)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy$VirtualFilterChain.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:275)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterChainProxy.doFilter(FilterChainProxy.java:149)
    at org.acegisecurity.util.FilterToBeanProxy.doFilter(FilterToBeanProxy.java:98)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.geoserver.filters.LoggingFilter.doFilter(LoggingFilter.java:73)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.geoserver.filters.ReverseProxyFilter.doFilter(ReverseProxyFilter.java:183)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.geoserver.filters.GZIPFilter.doFilter(GZIPFilter.java:41)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler$CachedChain.doFilter(ServletHandler.java:1084)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.ServletHandler.handle(ServletHandler.java:360)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.security.SecurityHandler.handle(SecurityHandler.java:216)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.servlet.SessionHandler.handle(SessionHandler.java:181)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandler.handle(ContextHandler.java:726)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.webapp.WebAppContext.handle(WebAppContext.java:405)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.ContextHandlerCollection.handle(ContextHandlerCollection.java:206)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerCollection.handle(HandlerCollection.java:114)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.handler.HandlerWrapper.handle(HandlerWrapper.java:152)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.Server.handle(Server.java:324)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handleRequest(HttpConnection.java:505)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection$RequestHandler.headerComplete(HttpConnection.java:828)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseNext(HttpParser.java:514)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpParser.parseAvailable(HttpParser.java:211)
    at org.mortbay.jetty.HttpConnection.handle(HttpConnection.java:380)
    at org.mortbay.io.nio.SelectChannelEndPoint.run(SelectChannelEndPoint.java:395)
    at org.mortbay.thread.BoundedThreadPool$PoolThread.run(BoundedThreadPool.java:450)
Caused by: java.io.IOException
    at org.geotools.jdbc.JDBCFeatureSource.buildFeatureType(JDBCFeatureSource.java:340)
    at org.geotools.jdbc.JDBCDataStore.createFeatureSource(JDBCDataStore.java:712)
    at org.geotools.data.store.ContentDataStore.getFeatureSource(ContentDataStore.java:383)
    at org.geotools.data.store.ContentDataStore.getFeatureSource(ContentDataStore.java:348)
    at org.geotools.data.store.ContentDataStore.getFeatureSource(ContentDataStore.java:647)
    at org.geoserver.catalog.CatalogBuilder.buildFeatureType(CatalogBuilder.java:324)
    at org.geoserver.web.data.layer.NewLayerPage.buildLayerInfo(NewLayerPage.java:198)
    ... 73 more
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: relation "geometry_columns" does not exist
  Position: 18
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.receiveErrorResponse(QueryExecutorImpl.java:2062)
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.processResults(QueryExecutorImpl.java:1795)
    at org.postgresql.core.v3.QueryExecutorImpl.execute(QueryExecutorImpl.java:257)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.execute(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:479)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeWithFlags(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:353)
    at org.postgresql.jdbc2.AbstractJdbc2Statement.executeQuery(AbstractJdbc2Statement.java:252)
    at org.apache.commons.dbcp.DelegatingStatement.executeQuery(DelegatingStatement.java:208)
    at org.geotools.data.postgis.PostGISDialect.getMapping(PostGISDialect.java:225)
    at org.geotools.jdbc.JDBCFeatureSource.buildFeatureType(JDBCFeatureSource.java:258)
    ... 79 more

Am I doing something wrong in my setup steps?

Answer 1

Check if you have a table called geometry_columns.

If not, then the installation of PostGIS might not have been performed successfully.

Oh, and if you've got multiple databases on your host, make sure that you create your table in a database where you have access to your PostGIS stuff.