Dan,

There was an almost identical question yesterday.

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/firebird-support/message/67669

Adam

--- In firebird-support@yahoogroups.com, "demallon" <demallon@y...> wrote:
>
> I'm writing an application that's using Firebird 1.5.2. I don't want
> my clients to have to run the Firebird installation script and want
> to include the Firebird files on my distribution. I'm running
> Windows XP.
>
> I take put these files in a directory:
>
> Then, I put these files in an FB directory below it:
>
> When I try to start up the fbserver, it won't start. I run
> fbserver -s to start up the server and it simply returns. I don't
> get a firebird.log anywhere. It doesn't show up in Task Manager ->
> Processes.
>
> I can run isql, but can't connect to my database, nor can I create
> one.
>
> I can't find any hints of environment variables in any search I've
> done. I did find a registry entry for
> HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Firebird Project\Firebird
> Server\Instances\DefaultInstance that was set to the location of
> fbserver.exe, so I created that.
>
> Otherwise I can't find anything that I'm missing. Anyone have any
> idea what I've left out?
>
> Thanks,
> Dan
>