Firebird "cannot load client..." Driving me nuts

Discussion of open issues, suggestions and bugs regarding UniDAC (Universal Data Access Components) for Delphi, C++Builder, Lazarus (and FPC)
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tonymeadors
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed 28 Feb 2007 17:56

Firebird "cannot load client..." Driving me nuts

Post by tonymeadors » Fri 18 Jun 2021 22:57

We've used IB and FB for decades with our products.
We finally have gotten around to moving from fb 2.5 to 3.0 as a standard
Or at least we wanted to.

We use fresh win10 vms for dev/db testing.
When we install FB 3.0.7 server, all our apps work great.
We just place a copy of fbclient in our own apps directory
and set CLIENTLIBRARY to point to it - bingo.

But *every attempt* at getting our apps to connect to that
FB server from other VMs using the same fbclient give the dreaded
cannot load client library error
c:\vp\dbs\fbclient.dll

The file is there and it is the right bitness - the 32-bit one that
matches all our applications - the same one that works when used explicitly
as CLIENTLIBRARY on the vm with VB server installed.

Of course I thought the docs neglected to explain other dependencies
that fbclient.dll might have and tried process explorer. Nothing turned up.

This may be mostly a firebird issue but I thought maybe someone
had worked through this at some point.

In short - our 32-bit apps refuse to load the 32-bit fbclient when
the full server is not loaded on that machine. huh.

Any speculation at all will be appreciated - I've already wasted
a couple of days on this!

thanks,
tonyM

tonymeadors
Posts: 35
Joined: Wed 28 Feb 2007 17:56

Re: Firebird "cannot load client..." -- RESOLVED

Post by tonymeadors » Mon 21 Jun 2021 14:21

RESOLVED

A chunk of my weekend went into struggling with this.

Eventually the classic 'Process Monitor' (sysinternals)
helped out. Process monitor showed that upon
load (use) fbclient.dll starts
frantically looking everywhere for MSVCR100.DLL.

When it gives up, it errors.
Placing msvcr100.dll right next to my fbclient.dll on
the remote client machine fixes the issue. Bingo.

Now on to the no-server case where firebird 3.0 has retired
the one-step fbembed.dll use... wish us luck.
tonyM

ViktorV
Devart Team
Posts: 3168
Joined: Wed 30 Jul 2014 07:16

Re: Firebird "cannot load client..." Driving me nuts

Post by ViktorV » Wed 23 Jun 2021 12:58

Hey Tony,

I’m glad that you were able to resolve your issue personally.
In case you will get any other issue or questions please feel free to contact us back.

Regards,
Viktor

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