Appendix A: Setting up a Firebird 1.5 Release Candidate

Before you read this appendix, ask yourself why you are working with an RC. If it's not for any special reason, but just because it “happens to be on your system”, do yourself a favor and download the final release. Release Candidates are just that: candidates. They are not supposed to hang around once the final release is out.

If you know what you are doing and you really have a good reason to use an RC instead of the real thing, read on.

Between Firebird 1.5 RC1 and Firebird 1.5 final, lots of things have changed with regard to Registry keys and installation procedures. These things affect the way Firebird should be set up to coexist with InterBase; they also affect DBServerToggler, which is the preferred tool for IB-Fb server switching. However, because development of the Toggler started when Firebird 1.5 was in the early RC phase, certain RC characteristics that have since disappeared are still supported by it.

These are the installation steps to follow if you have a 1.5 Release Candidate:

Install Firebird according to the instructions that came with your RC. If there is an installation program and it asks you whether it should install a legacy GDS32.DLL in the Windows system dir, answer Yes. Maybe you have to check a box on one of the setup screens. Check the system dir (e.g. C:\Windows\system32) afterwards to see if GDS32.DLL is present, and if it is the one from your Firebird package (look at file dates, version info etc.). If it is missing, copy fbclient.dll from your Firebird bin subdir to the Windows system dir and rename it to GDS32.DLL.
Using the Windows command regedit.exe, look in your Registry under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ for one of these two keys:

FirebirdSQL\Firebird\CurrentVersion\RootDirectory

Firebird Project\Firebird Server\Instances\DefaultInstance

One of these keys should exist, and point to your Firebird install dir. If this is not the case, go to the Firebird bin subdir and execute the following command from there:

instreg install "C:\Program Files\Firebird"

...but replace the path argument with your own Firebird install dir if it's different.

If the command returns “Firebird has been successfully installed in the registry” or something similar, good. If not, try just this:

instreg install

(Later RCs choke on the argument; they know what the correct install dir is and put it in the Registry themselves.)
Now jump back to the “Copy any UDFs...” substep in the regular procedure (which you've left to visit this appendix) and let's hope everything works out. If not, you're pretty much on your own (told you you should install the final release, didn't I?).