> When I try to launch isql, the program exits directly without any
> message and the lock manager doesn't appear in the process list.

On further investigation the problem has nothing to do with libraries / permissions etc
but has everyting to do with the server (e.g. isql etc) to find and load firebird.conf.
HPUX's lack of a truss or trace tool is particularly irritating, but a google search
found something called tusc...
Once you have ln -s'd the appropriate library's
do the following and make sure this environment variable is available to all processes
that will use Firebird

FIREBIRD=/soft/fbd152
export FIREBIRD

Everything should work ok...
btw where do I send the bill?

Paul