diff --git a/sys/databases/firebird-ibase.php b/sys/databases/firebird-ibase.php
index c433fcd..5c828a4 100644
--- a/sys/databases/firebird-ibase.php
+++ b/sys/databases/firebird-ibase.php
@@ -34,7 +34,13 @@ class firebird extends DB_PDO {
 		// pass around the resource that this provides.
 		// Since the resource is not required by the 
 		// functions that would use it, I'm dumping it.
-		ibase_connect($dbpath, $user, $pass, 'utf-8');
+		$conn = @ibase_connect($dbpath, $user, $pass, 'utf-8');
+
+		if ( ! is_resource($conn))
+		{
+			throw new PDOException(ibase_errmsg());
+			die();
+		}
 		
 		$class = __CLASS__."_sql";
 		$this->sql = new $class;
diff --git a/tests/databases/firebird.php b/tests/databases/firebird.php
index ad0c2ec..61d3cda 100644
--- a/tests/databases/firebird.php
+++ b/tests/databases/firebird.php
@@ -32,7 +32,9 @@ class FirebirdTest extends UnitTestCase {
 	
 	function setUp()
 	{
-		$this->db = new Firebird(dirname(__FILE__)."/../test_dbs/FB_TEST_DB.FDB");
+		$dbpath = TEST_DIR.DS.'test_dbs'.DS.'FB_TEST_DB.FDB';
+		echo "\n\n{$dbpath}\n\n";
+		$this->db = new Firebird($dbpath);
 		$this->tables = $this->db->get_tables();
 	}
 	
diff --git a/tests/index.php b/tests/index.php
index 35b9386..40f3e6d 100644
--- a/tests/index.php
+++ b/tests/index.php
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@
  * Unit test bootstrap - Using php simpletest
  */
 define('BASE_DIR', '../src');
+define('TEST_DIR', dirname(__FILE__));
+define('DS', DIRECTORY_SEPARATOR);
 
 // Include simpletest
 // it has to be set in your php path, or put in the tests folder