At 01:36 PM 6/01/2005 +0000, you wrote:

>How do I correct this? <Begging voice> Please <\Begging voice>

:-) Calm down, NIck.

>[root@ueserv1 opt]# rpm -iv FirebirdSS-1.5.2.4731-0.i686.rpm
>Preparing packages for installation...
> package FirebirdSS-1.5.2.4731-0 is already installed
>[root@ueserv1 opt]# rpm -ev FirebirdSS-1.5.2.4731-0.i686.rpm
>error: package FirebirdSS-1.5.2.4731-0.i686.rpm is not installed

Oh dear. Can you su to the user that installed the package and then query
to see what the rpm database manager can see?

rpm -qa | grep -i Firebird

>(ibadmin reports 1.5.0.4288, RC9 which is what I thought I was running)

If ibadmin is reporting *anything* then the server is running and you won't
be able to uninstall the package. If that's what was really getting in the
way, just shutting down the server might get you back on the rails.

(then I tried to rpm -uv which helen says is a no no, now I'm stuck)

I can recall getting the rpm database into a mess once when installing all
the compatibility packages for Kylix 2 and eventually getting it
straightened out by fiddling about with fake updates. If you really have
stuffed up the rpm database, you could try to clean up by doing

rpm -U --nodeps FirebirdSS-1.5.2.4731-0.i686.rpm

If the command runs, that's cool. After it's done, THEN
1) check whether the server is running and if so, shut it down
2) erase the package

From there you should be good to go on a proper install. In fact, if the
package really isn't installed at the time you do rpm -U it will do an -i
anyway. The trouble is, at the moment you don't know what you've got.

I don't know what to suggest otherwise.

./hb