[Mapserver-users] PostGIS questions - help with mapserver

[Zamil Murji]

Hi List,

Here is my situation:
1) From the server, I can ping the postgis server and I can telnet into it on the correct port (5432).
2) From the postgis server, I can login to the db using psql command. The command I used looks similar to the CONNECTION string my .map file.
3) I can select the geometry from the table.
4) Basically, I can do everything mentioned in the Wiki.

After all this, I cannot display the layer using mapserver. I keep getting the following error: 
msDrawMap(): Image handling error. Failed to draw layer named 'oilwells'. 

Here is my .map layer definition:
#PostGIS Data Layer
LAYER
   NAME "oilwells"
   TYPE point
   STATUS default
   CONNECTIONTYPE postgis
   CONNECTION "user=idc dbname=idc host=sdb2 port=5432" 
   DATA "GEOM FROM OILWELLS" 
   CLASS
     COLOR 0 0 0
     SYMBOL 'circle'
     SIZE 20
#     TEMPLATE "c:\\mapfiles\test.html"
   END
END

I have indexed geom using gist syntax. How do I verify this index exists? 

Here is my table:
idc=# select * from oilwells;
 id |                 geom
----+--------------------------------------
  1 | SRID=4326;POINT(-110.04146 49.01449)
  2 | SRID=4326;POINT(-110.24459 49.01449)
  3 | SRID=4326;POINT(-110.43138 49.01449)
(3 rows)

What am I missing?
Thank you very much for your help.
Zamil