Installing 2.0.4 onto OpenSUSE 10.3, since a working rpm is not available for
OpenSUSE 11.1.
The plain "firebird" rpm (which is not required!) contains the sample
employee database.

Lives under /usr/lib64/firebird, even the executables in +/bin.
The bin directory is automatically added to the default system PATH.

I am running a serverserver (network access only)

Processes.  They run as dedicated user "firebird".
    fbserver
    fbguard  A watchdog.

Default admin account:   SYSDBA / masterke

sysdba account is special.

Accounts
    Account names and passwords are generally case-insensitive.
    sysdba password is unique in that it is case-sensitive.

gsec
    Commands can be abbreviated as long as the abbreviation remains unique.
    For some freaking reason, the syntax instructions don't tell you to add "-"
     before commands.  Example:
        gsec -user sysdba -password masterke -di
    to list users.

/etc/firebird/aliases.conf
    Mappings of names to database *.fdb files
/etc/firebird/firebird.conf

*.dbf's must be on real local drives.


CONNECTING
    Local connections can specify the path to the *.fdb file or an alias
    thereto, but I'm not currently interested in local connections.
    N.b. the error messages are very non-intuitive if you attempt to use a
    local DB identifier with a superserver setup.  Must use a network
    identifier with a superserver.

    host:/absolute/file/path.fdb   OR   host:alias

isql
    isql -u blaine -p password host:alias
    CONNECT dbid user x password y;
    exit; == quit;    (Exit the entire isql program)
    CREATE A DATABASE:
    Authenticate to any DB as any user, then
        create database 'localhost:/path/to/file.fdb' [page_size 8192];
    If no DB to connect to, don't authenticate first, and add the following:
        create...  user 'x' password 'y';