When trying to connect LibreOffice Base 26.2 to a FirebirdSQL 5 .fdb file I’m getting a “Connection could not be established” message.
I’m as certain as I can be that the username and password being entered (usrbatch/usrbatch) are correct.
The JDBC connection string and driver were tested successfully. The error message appears after the Firebird username and password have been keyed.
You can find information about how the database was created below.
Apologies for the length of the post as I have anticipated that the more, specific, information people have the easier it will be to spot the source of the error.
In C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_5_0\database.conf there is the line.
testa = C:/Users/salis/Documents/DBs/TestDB/testa.fdb
To create the data FirebirdSQL commands were entered using the isql tool. These were:
CONNECT employee user ‘SYSDBA’ password ‘masterkey’;
CREATE USER usrbatch PASSWORD 'usrbatch' FIRSTNAME 'Run' LASTNAME 'Batch' GRANT ADMIN ROLE ACTIVE TAGS (Interactive = 'No', LibreOffice = 'No', isql = 'Yes');
create database 'C:/Users/salis/Documents/DBs/TestDB/testa.fdb' USER usrbatch PASSWORD 'usrbatch' ROLE RDB$ADMIN PAGE_SIZE 8192 SET NAMES 'NONE' DEFAULT CHARACTER SET NONE;
show database;
Database: testa
Owner: USRBATCH
PAGE_SIZE 8192
Number of DB pages allocated = 240
Number of DB pages used = 224
Number of DB pages free = 16
Sweep interval = 20000
Forced Writes are ON
Transaction - oldest = 14
Transaction - oldest active = 15
Transaction - oldest snapshot = 15
Transaction - Next = 18
ODS = 13.1
Database not encrypted
Embedded connection
Creation date: Mar 10, 2026 16:48:29
Replica mode: NONE
Default Character set: NONE
Publication: Disabled
CREATE TABLE "ZZ_contact" ("ZZ_contact_id" INTEGER GENERATED BY DEFAULT AS IDENTITY (START WITH 0 INCREMENT BY 1) PRIMARY KEY, "contact_name" VARCHAR(50) DEFAULT 'Contact Name', "contact_email" VARCHAR(50), "contact_role" VARCHAR(50));
INSERT INTO "ZZ_contact" ("contact_name", "contact_email", "contact_role") values ('First Last','x@xgov.uk','IT support');
SELECT * from "ZZ_contact";
displays the row just inserted.
Environment
A single Windows PC with a single Windows user account
Windows 10 22H2
FirebirdSQL 5.0
LibreOffice
Version: 26.2.0.3 (X86_64)
Build ID: 620(Build:3)
CPU threads: 4; OS: Windows 10 X86_64 (build 19045); UI render: Skia/Raster; VCL: win
Locale: en-GB (en_GB); UI: en-GB
Calc: CL threaded
In LO the Java Runtime Environment used is
openjdk version “25.0.2” 2026-01-20 LTS
OpenJDK Runtime Environment Temurin-25.0.2+10 (build 25.0.2+10-LTS)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM Temurin-25.0.2+10 (build 25.0.2+10-LTS, mixed mode, sharing)
In LO the Class Path Archive (Using Tools → Options → LibreOffice → Advanced → Class Path → Add Archive…) is
C:\Program Files\Jaybird\jaybird-6.0.4\jaybird-6.0.4.jar
Connection string jdbc:firebirdsql://localhost:3050/testa
JDBC Driver Class org.firebirdsql.jdbc.FBDriver.
Options?
1, LO requires a specific plugin or connection provider
Looking at Section 14.1 “User Authentication” in the Language Reference (https://www.firebirdsql.org/file/documentation/html/en/refdocs/fblangref50/firebird-50-language-reference.html) I can see “User authentication can be performed in several ways, depending on the setting of the AuthServer parameter in the firebird.conf configuration file. This parameter contains the list of authentication plugins that can be used when connecting to the server. If the first plugin fails when authenticating, then the client can proceed with the next plugin, etc. When no plugin could authenticate the user, the user receives an error message.”
There is no “AuthServer” reference in C:\Program Files\Firebird\Firebird_5_0\database.conf.
There is also some information about AuthServers and AuthClients in the Configuration Reference (https://www.firebirdsql.org/docs/html/en/refdocs/fbconf/firebird-configuration-reference.html) Does LO required a specific plugin? Or Connection provider?
2, The database is reported as “Embedded connection”.
Again from Section 14.1 “The embedded version of the server does not use authentication; for embedded, the filesystem permissions to open the database file are used as authorization to access the database. However, the username, and — if necessary — the role, must be specified in the connection parameters, as they control access to database objects.”
3, Something else.
Thank you for any help that can be provided.
is this driver the right one for FB 5?