Error SQLCODE -904 in firebird after installation

Question

I installed firebird database for the first time in my life (version 1.5.6 on Windows 7), after installation I can not connect to the sample database (employee.fdb exists), or create a database. This gives the following error in ISQL Tool:

C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\bin>isql
Use CONNECT or CREATE DATABASE to specify a database
SQL> CONNECT "C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_1_5\examples\employee.fdb"
CON> user 'SYSDBA' password 'masterkey';
Statement failed, SQLCODE = -904
unavailable database

SQL> create database 'C:\test.fdb'
CON> user 'SYSDBA' password 'masterkey';
Statement failed, SQLCODE = -904
unavailable database

Answer 1

Firebird 1.5 was written (long) before Windows 7, and before things like UAC existed. It may simply be that Firebird 1.5 doesn't work correctly with Windows 7, or that it requires additional effort to work. I'd suggest to install Firebird 2.5.2 (update 1) as that is the latest version and is known to work with Windows 7.

Another problem might be that local system connections don't work as I seem to remember that Firebird 1.5 uses an older local protocol which doesn't work on newer Windows versions. This protocol was replaced in Firebird 2.0. To workaround that you need to include the hostname in the CREATE DATABASE or CONNECT statement, so for example:

create database 'localhost:C:\test.fdb' user 'SYSDBA' password 'masterkey';

Answer 2

Windows 7+ breaks the local api protocol. You have to use Tcpip protocol to connect to the database, even for local connections.