>> Sourceforge binaries need a configuration program (missing) to set

up the entries in the Registry..and no doubt to set up the gds entry
in the Service file and whatever.

Here's some relevant pieces form my BorCon presentation next month
(I'll post the complete papers and slides on the InterBase
Installation Info website after BorCon):

Registry entries
----------------
Once you have installed InterBase, you should update the registry
entries that InterBase uses. The following registry entries should
be used:

The data value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Borland\
InterBase\Current Version\Root Directory should be set to the %
INTERBASE% folder.

Note: If you are installing InterBase on Windows 95, Windows 98, or
Windows Me, the InterBase Server Manager will not be able to start
the InterBase server unless you place a trailing backslash ("\") on
the end of the path for the Root Directory registry key. Until
Borland has fixed this bug, I suggest that you place a trailing
backslash ("\") on the Root Directory folder.

The data value of HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Borland\
InterBase\Current Version\Version should be set to the version of
GDS32.DLL.

As an alternative to setting the keys programatically, you can use
the INSTREG.EXE program to create the registry keys for
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Borland\
InterBase\Current Version\Root Directory
and
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Borland\
InterBase\Current Version\Version.

You can see the syntax for running instreg by calling instreg from
the command prompt with no parameters. Note: instreg does not
maintain the reference counts on the shared files.

Updating the TCP/IP services file
---------------------------------
If your client application will be using TCP/IP to connect to the
InterBase server, you will need to be sure that the services file
contains the gds_db entry. The services file is called "services."
(no extension). The services file is found in the Windows folder on
Windows 95, Windows 98, and Windows Me. The services file is found
in the System32\drivers\etc folder on Windows NT and Windows 2000.
If the services file does not contain an entry for gds_db, then you
will need to add the following line to the services file:

gds_db 3050/tcp # InterBase

Running InterBase as an NT service
----------------------------------
If you are running on Windows NT or Windows 2000, you can run
InterBase as an NT service. An NT service can run in the background
even when there is no user logged into the NT system. I recommend
that you run InterBase as an NT service if you are running on Windows
NT or Windows 2000.

To install the InterBase server as an NT service, you can use the
instsvc.exe program. This will create the necessary registry entries
to configure InterBase as an NT service. You should call instsvc.exe
as follows:

instsvc install "%INTERBASE%" -auto

A program can be installed as a Windows NT service by calling the
CreateService Windows API call. If you are installing InterBase
using an installation program (such as Wise) that can create
services, I recommend that you create the service using the
installation package rather than by calling instsvc.

Note: If you install InterBase as an NT Service into a folder that
contains folder names with spaces, you may encounter the following
error:

Error 0193: %1 is not a valid NT application

If you receive this error, click the link above for the Borland
Developer Support article describing the error. The best way I have
found to avoid this problem is to save the path name for the service
executable in 8.3 (short file name) format. Note: The same thing
applies for the InterBase Guardian service described below.

HTH,
David R. Robinson