Hi,

>> Ah, that's a known issue. Please read instructions here:
>>
>> http://www.firebirdsql.org/rlsnotesh/rlsnotes25.html#rnfb25-compat-metadata

> that site seems to be down for me at the moment

When did you last try? It's up for me, but maybe it's a DNS issue.

Anyway, this is what it says:

Effects of Unicode Metadata

If you have not previously updated text objects within the metadata of your
databases to be in character set UTF8, restoring a database until V.2.5 will
fail with “malformed string” errors. To resolve this it is necessary to pay
attention to the files in the /misc/upgrade/metadata directory of your
installation and to use the new -fix_fss_data and -fix_fss_metadata switches
in the gbak command line.


HTH,
Paul Vinkenoog