Setting up a spatial postgresql database with postgis

My machine is running Ubuntu 10.04 x64 This is assuming you already have postgresql and postgis installed.
First create the PostgreSQL database:

createdb yourdatabase

Then add plpgsql support to that database:

createlang plpgsql yourdatabase

Then you need to import these two SQL files into that database to set up the PostGIS functions:

psql -d yourdatabase -f /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/postgis-1.5/postgis.sql psql -d yourdatabase -f /usr/share/postgresql/8.4/contrib/postgis-1.5/spatial_ref_sys.sql

That's it!
QGIS has a nice plugin tool for pushing shapefiles into postgis enabled postgresql databases called SPIT(Shapefile to Postgresql Import Tool