At 02:15 PM 19/06/2007, you wrote:

>Could I please have some help? I need to install Firebird on my box
>(running Mandriva Linux), but something went wrong. I tried installing
>Firebird 2.X CS, and it installed and showed up in my system
>configuration, but always showed as "Stopped". I tried to start it,
>but it wouldn't work.
>I tried rebooting, since it was set to start up at boot. In the
>verbose listing, it said Firebird was successfully loaded, but when
>Linux was done booting up, it was apparently constantly "stopped"
>again, a status which wouldn't change no matter what I did.
>So I uninstalled this and tried Firebird 2.X SS, which did exactly the
>same thing.
>After this I tried all the available versions for Linux and all these
>other ones would start installing, freeze for a second (at the
>installation progress screen) and then say, "Installed!" but never
>showed up at all anywhere on the computer.
>
>Long story short, no versions of Firebird will work properly! Is there
>any help I can get, any suggestions?

First, find out whether the xinetd daemon is installed and
running. (Firebird SS won't work without it; Firebird CS can, but
only if you fix up permissions in Mandriva).

Next, understand that CS doesn't keep a server application
running. There is an xinetd script (installed) that will kick in
when you make a legal attempt to connect to a database On success,
the daemon will start up an instance of fb_inet_server that belongs
exclusively to the successful connection. That process will close
down when your client disconnects.

SS (fbserver) does* start a process and it sits there listening for a
connection attempt via xinetd. When a correct one comes through (the
very first) it does the following:

1) Opens the security database in read-only mode and keeps it open
until there are no logged-in users
2) Authenticates the requesting user
3) Starts some threads, including one for the successful connection,
each running its own child process of fbserver
4) Connects the requesting client to the requested database[s]

Still, you should see fbserver in the process list (ps -aux || grep
fb), even before the first connection attempt. Therefore my money is
on xinetd not being installed.

./heLen