that.SelectedDude wrote:

> This is on Ubuntu Linux. I've installed Firebird Classic Server 1.5.3

[...]

> This should mean Firebird Server isn't started.
> I've started /usr/lib/firebird2/bin/fb_inet_server though

I hope that by "I've started" you don't mean that you started it
manually, but rather that (x)inetd has started it?

> Any hints on how to proceed?

First check if you have inetd or xinetd installed and running. A simple:

ps ax | grep inetd

should do it.

Then, you could also check wheter tcp port 3050 is open with commands
like lsof, netstat or nmap.

Before going to GUI tools, try with isql, which is probably in:

/usr/lib/firebird2/bin/isql

As I recall, there were problems with Debian package that you couldn't
access employee database out-of-the-box (some symlinks messed up). I
guess Ubuntu is using the same package?

Anyway, while installing, it should ask you for sysdba password. You can
try with that:

cd /usr/lib/firebird2/bin/
./isql localhost:/usr/lib/firebird2/examples/employee.fdb -user sysdba
-pass your_password

If that fails, I suggest you define your own directory for databases
(for example: /dbases) and make that your sandbox. You need to set user
"firebird" as owner of directory, and give it al least 700 permissions.

/usr/lib/firebird2/bin/isql
SQL> create database '/dbases/test1.fdb';

If this fails as well, you might need to edit the file
/etc/firebird2/firebird.conf and uncomment the DatabaseAccess setting
(you can leave it on Full for testing, and set it to /dbases later).

My overall impression is that whoever made the Debian packages has
unnecessarily complicated things. You might want to try and install
Firebird from the official .tar.gz package found on the website. I find
it to be consistent accross different distributions, so you don't have
to learn the Debian/Ubuntu specifics.

--
Milan Babuskov
http://swoes.blogspot.com/
http://www.flamerobin.org