installing FrontBase on Ubuntu (and/or Debian)

I got a grundle of problems attempting to install FrontBase, but my flailing attempts finally worked, so here's what happened.

Start with the official guide at the FrontBase site.

On my first 'dpkg' attempt, I got the following errors:


$ sudo dpkg -i FrontBase-4.2.8.deb
(Reading database ... 122351 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace frontbase 4.2.8-1 (using FrontBase-4.2.8.deb) ...
Unpacking replacement frontbase ...
dpkg: dependency problems prevent configuration of frontbase:
frontbase depends on libncurses4 (>= 4.2-3.1); however:
Package libncurses4 is not installed.
frontbase depends on libreadline4 (>= 4.1); however:
Package libreadline4 is not installed.
dpkg: error processing frontbase (--install):
dependency problems - leaving unconfigured
Errors were encountered while processing:
frontbase



Then I tried 'apt-get' and still got errors:


$ sudo apt-get install -f
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Correcting dependencies... Done
The following extra packages will be installed:
libncurses4 libreadline4
The following NEW packages will be installed:
libncurses4 libreadline4
0 upgraded, 2 newly installed, 0 to remove and 18 not upgraded.
1 not fully installed or removed.
Need to get 298kB of archives.
After unpacking 709kB of additional disk space will be used.
Do you want to continue [Y/n]? y
Get:1 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com gutsy/universe libncurses4 4.2-10.1 [194kB]
Get:2 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com edgy/universe libreadline4 4.3-18 [104kB]
Fetched 298kB in 2s (131kB/s)
Selecting previously deselected package libncurses4.
(Reading database ... 122351 files and directories currently installed.)
Unpacking libncurses4 (from .../libncurses4_4.2-10.1_i386.deb) ...
Selecting previously deselected package libreadline4.
Unpacking libreadline4 (from .../libreadline4_4.3-18_i386.deb) ...
Setting up libncurses4 (4.2-10.1) ...

Setting up libreadline4 (4.3-18) ...

Setting up frontbase (4.2.8-1) ...
Starting FrontBase service

Processing triggers for libc6 ...
ldconfig deferred processing now taking place




Well, it looks like something happened, so I tried 'dpkg' again and got something a bit different:


$ sudo dpkg -i FrontBase-4.2.8.deb
(Reading database ... 122374 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace frontbase 4.2.8-1 (using FrontBase-4.2.8.deb) ...
Shutting down FrontBase service
/var/lib/dpkg/info/frontbase.prerm: 11: /etc/init.d/FBWeb: not found
dpkg: warning - old pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
dpkg - trying script from the new package instead ...
/var/lib/dpkg/tmp.ci/prerm: 11: /etc/init.d/FBWeb: not found
dpkg: error processing FrontBase-4.2.8.deb (--install):
subprocess new pre-removal script returned error exit status 127
Starting FrontBase service
Errors were encountered while processing:
FrontBase-4.2.8.deb



Even though it still complains of errors, I tried looking at my processes, and viola:


$ ps -edalf | grep FrontBase
0 S root 24174 1 0 75 0 - 1335 - 13:09 pts/4 00:00:00 /usr/lib/FrontBase/bin/FBExec -autostart




Then I ran through the example statements on the install page via sql92 and saw the first DB running:


$ ps -edalf | grep FrontBase
0 S root 24174 1 0 75 0 - 1335 - 13:09 pts/4 00:00:00 /usr/lib/FrontBase/bin/FBExec -autostart
0 S root 24248 1 0 75 0 - 4392 - 13:13 pts/4 00:00:00 /usr/lib/FrontBase/bin/FrontBase /usr/lib/FrontBase/Databases/firstdb.fb



Great! Now I can even connect with my Java SQL tool using the FrontBase driver with the following info:

• URL: jdbc:FrontBase://localhost/firstdb
• User: test
• Pass: