TROUBLESHOOTING
===============
A lot of what is explained below should be done automatically by the install
process. It is explanined here just in case it didn't do it correctly for
your circumstance.
1) IS IT WORKING HOW DO I TELL?
A quick smoke test to see if it is all working is as follows:
$cd /usr/local/firebird/examples
$/usr/local/firebird/bin/isql
>connect employee.gdb;
>select rdb$relation_name from rdb$relations;
>exit;
(In some cases you may need to provide a password to isql)
$/usr/local/firebird/bin/isql
>connect employee.gdb user sysdba password <password>;
>select rdb$relation_name from rdb$relations;
> show tables;
>exit;
Where password will be either masterkey, or in the
file /usr/local/firebird/SYSDBA.password.
For a test using networking.
$/usr/local/firebird/bin/isql
>connect 'localhost:/usr/local/firebird/examples/employee.gdb';
>select rdb$relation_name from rdb$relations;
>exit;
On a remote machine you can try the above replacing localhost with
the server name. Remember you may need to specify the username/password
in to get it to work.
2) HOW DO I CHECK THAT THE SERVER IS RUNNING
You can check if the server is running by.
netstat -an | grep 3050
If something is listening on port 3050 then the server is running.
If something is not running, then see next topics.
3) TROUBLESHOOTING CLASSIC SERVER INSTALL
The classic server works in two modes, it allows you to directly open
the database files, in this mode it does not need a server.
This is done if in classic you open databases with a diretory path only.
$isql
>connect '/usr/local/firebird/examples.gdb';
If however you open files with the following
$isql
>connect 'localhost:/usr/local/firebird/examples.gdb';
Then the isql program connects to the local firebird inetd server program
to service the request.
The configuration files for setting up the inetd (or xinetd) for the
classic server are as follows:
The /etc/services file needs an entry as follows:
gds_db 3050/tcp # InterBase Database Remote Protocol"
For inetd the /etc/inetd.conf file should have a line as follows
gds_db stream tcp nowait.30000 root /usr/local/firebird/bin/gds_inet_server gds_inet_server
You will need to restart the inetd process before the server will work.
$ps -ef | grep inetd
will give you the process id and
$kill -HUP <pid>
will instruct it to reread it's configuration file and listen on port 3050.
Recent linux systems Redhat 7.0/Mandrake 7.2 and later have xinetd, The
process is fairly similar, except the firebord service is described via
a file in /etc/xinetd.d/firebird. There is a template version of this file
in /usr/local/firebird/misc/firebird.xinetd, you should only need to copy the
file to that directory.
After copying the file, to get the xinetd process to reread it's
configuration files, first find the xinetd process id.
$ ps -ef | grep xinetd
Then send it a restart signal.
$kill -USR2 <pid>
And it will reread it's configuration file and listen on port 3050.
See the topic SERVER STILL WONT START for more info if requried.
4) TROUBLESHOOTING SUPER SERVER INSTALL
Super server runs as an inetd process. There should be an fbguard process
running and several (usually 3) fbserver threads running.
The server should start with
$/etc/init.d/firebird start
Installation problems for super usually revolve around the server not
starting up correctly during installation.
Often this is caused by either lack of permission to connect via tcp
to the server process or a prior install (perhaps a classic server )
already running.
One bad side effect is that this could result in the initial SYSDBA
password not being set correctly.
The password should be in the file /usr/local/firebird/SYSDBA.password, but
sometimes if the install couldn't
talk to the server then the SYSDBA password may be the build default of
masterkey.
The SYSDBA password in /etc/init.d/firebird is hardcoded, and has to be
correct, so some use of the /usr/local/firebird/bin/changeDBAPassword.sh
script may be required to fix this sort of problem.
If there are problems you may need to check the actual file for correct
SYSDBA password and install location.
If running the /etc/init.d/firebird start script does not work then see
the topic SERVER STILL WONT START for more debugging info.
5) SERVER STILL WONT START
If you are really having problems try running the server programs
directly, that way if there is any unsatisfied links they should show
up. ie:
$/usr/local/firebird/bin/fbserver # for super
and
$/usr/local/firebird/bin/gds_inet_server # for classic
and take note of any error messages.
There may be a problem with an unsatisfied dynamic library link (ie it
requires a library or version of a library that you do not have installed)
You can check the dynamic library requirements as follows:
$ldd /usr/local/firebird/bin/fbserver
After this point try posting a question to a newsgroup on:
http://firebird.sourceforge.net/newslists.php
(The ib-support newsgroups is a good starting point).
3) PROBLEMS CONNECTING TO SERVER
Most network connect problems come down to the /etc/hosts.equiv file.
It needs to have the host from which you want your clients to connect
from in it.
There can be problems if DNS is not configured where there are problems
finding the names of the hosts or where ip numbers are used.
If this is the case placeing specific entries in the /etc/hosts file
is a good place to start.
Try to connect to the server using telnet.
$telnet server 3050
This will tell you if you can get to the server, failure could be becuase
of no suitable entry in /etc/host.equiv or some firewall blockage, or the
most common one, the server is not running.
3) WHY ARE MY DATABASES OWNED BY ROOT
4) WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE
