[squid-users] Struggling to start squid for the first time

Hi all,
I am a newbie squidish and Linux is also new to me. I am going to setup a
squid transparent proxy for my small LAN. but, still I have many things to
understand. I followed the installation guide of squid. but when I first
launch squid it gives this error. and below is my squid.conf file that came
with default. please, some one help me to go ahead.

the error :
[root@proxy ~]# /usr/local/squid/sbin/squid
FATAL: getpwnam failed to find userid for effective
user 'squid'
Squid Cache (Version 2.5.STABLE10): Terminated
abnormally.
CPU Usage: 0.006 seconds = 0.003 user + 0.003 sys
Maximum Resident Size: 0 KB
Page faults with physical i/o: 6
Aborted
[root@proxy ~]#

my squid.conf file:

http_port 3128
icp_port 3130
udp_incoming_address 0.0.0.0
udp_outgoing_address 255.255.255.255
icp_query_timeout 0
maximum_icp_query_timeout 2000
mcast_icp_query_timeout 3000
dead_peer_timeout 10 seconds
hierarchy_stoplist cgi-bin ?
acl QUERY urlpath_regex cgi-bin \?
no_cache deny QUERY
cache_mem 16 MB
cache_swap_low 90
cache_swap_high 95
maximum_object_size 4096 KB
minimum_object_size 0 KB
maximum_object_size_in_memory 16 KB
ipcache_size 1024
ipcache_low 90
ipcache_high 95
fqdncache_size 1024
cache_replacement_policy lru
memory_replacement_policy lru
cache_dir ufs /usr/local/squid/var/cache 100 16 256
cache_access_log /usr/local/squid/var/logs/access.log
cache_log /usr/local/squid/var/logs/cache.log
cache_store_log /usr/local/squid/var/logs/store.log
emulate_httpd_log off
log_ip_on_direct on
mime_table /usr/local/squid/etc/mime.conf
log_mime_hdrs off
pid_filename /usr/local/squid/var/logs/squid.pid
debug_options ALL,1
log_fqdn off
client_netmask 255.255.255.255
ftp_list_width 32
ftp_passive on
ftp_sanitycheck on
ftp_telnet_protocol on
dns_retransmit_interval 5 seconds
dns_timeout 2 minutes
#defnames off
hosts_file /etc/hosts
diskd_program /usr/local/squid/libexec/diskd
unlinkd_program /usr/local/squid/libexec/unlinkd
redirect_children 5
redirect_rewrites_host_header on
authenticate_cache_garbage_interval 1 hour
authenticate_ttl 1 hour
authenticate_ip_ttl 200 seconds
request_header_max_size 20 KB
request_body_max_size 0 KB
refresh_pattern ^ftp: 1440 20% 10080
refresh_pattern ^gopher: 1440 0% 1440
refresh_pattern . 0 20% 4320
quick_abort_min 16 KB
quick_abort_max 16 KB
quick_abort_pct 95
negative_ttl 5 minutes
positive_dns_ttl 6 hours
negative_dns_ttl 1 minute
range_offset_limit 0 KB
forward_timeout 4 minutes
connect_timeout 1 minute
peer_connect_timeout 30 seconds
read_timeout 15 minutes
request_timeout 5 minutes
persistent_request_timeout 1 minute
client_lifetime 1 day
half_closed_clients off
pconn_timeout 120 seconds
ident_timeout 10 seconds
shutdown_lifetime 30 seconds

# ACCESS CONTROLS
# --------------------------------------------------------------------------

---
#Recommended minimum configuration:
acl all src 0.0.0.0/0.0.0.0
acl manager proto cache_object
acl localhost src 127.0.0.1/255.255.255.255
acl to_localhost dst 127.0.0.0/8
acl SSL_ports port 443 563
acl Safe_ports port 80  # http
acl Safe_ports port 21  # ftp
acl Safe_ports port 443 563 # https, snews
acl Safe_ports port 70  # gopher
acl Safe_ports port 210  # wais
acl Safe_ports port 1025-65535 # unregistered ports
acl Safe_ports port 280  # http-mgmt
acl Safe_ports port 488  # gss-http
acl Safe_ports port 591  # filemaker
acl Safe_ports port 777  # multiling http
acl CONNECT method CONNECT
http_access deny all
http_access allow manager localhost
http_access deny manager
http_access deny !Safe_ports
http_access deny CONNECT !SSL_ports
acl our_networks src 192.168.1.0/24 192.168.2.0/24
http_access allow our_networks
http_access deny all
http_reply_access allow all
icp_access allow all
miss_access allow all
ident_lookup_access deny all
reply_header_max_size 20 KB
reply_body_max_size 0 allow all
# ADMINISTRATIVE PARAMETERS
cache_mgr mohan-jayaweera@hotmail.com
cache_effective_user squid
cache_effective_group squid
visible_hostname proxy
tcp_recv_bufsize 0 bytes
memory_pools_limit 5 MB
forwarded_for on
log_icp_queries on
icp_hit_stale off
minimum_direct_hops 4
minimum_direct_rtt 400
store_avg_object_size 13 KB
store_objects_per_bucket 20
client_db on
netdb_low 900
netdb_high 1000
netdb_ping_period 5 minutes
query_icmp off
test_reachability off
buffered_logs off
reload_into_ims off
short_icon_urls off
error_directory /usr/local/squid/share/errors/English
maximum_single_addr_tries 1
retry_on_error off
as_whois_server whois.ra.net
as_whois_server whois.ra.net
wccp_router 0.0.0.0
wccp_version 4
wccp_incoming_address 0.0.0.0
wccp_outgoing_address 255.255.255.255
prefer_direct off
strip_query_terms on
coredump_dir none
coredump_dir /usr/local/squid/var/cache
redirector_bypass off
ignore_unknown_nameservers on
client_persistent_connections on
server_persistent_connections on
detect_broken_pconn off
balance_on_multiple_ip on
pipeline_prefetch off
request_entities off
high_response_time_warning 0
high_page_fault_warning 0
high_memory_warning 0
store_dir_select_algorithm least-load
ie_refresh off
vary_ignore_expire off
sleep_after_fork 0
relaxed_header_parser on