Installing Oracle 9.2.0.1.0 Client on Gentoo 1.4

[neoTheCat]

hello.

i am having a huge problem installing Oracle 9.2.0.1.0 Client on Gentoo 1.4. i followed most of directions on http://www.puschitz.com/OracleOnLinux.shtml, mainly the dirs to setup and the env vars, but i keep getting this weird behavior.

First, it asks me twice for the Installation Types. After my second time of selecting Client->runtime, it gives me the following error:

Error: A runtime exception occured while setting s_operatingSystemnull in component Oracle9i Client 9.2.0.1.0 . Installation cannot continue for this component.

and then it asks if i would like to continue or exit. either choice, it just exits....

any help would be appreciated at all,
thank ahead of time,
-- neoTheCat

[ebrostig]

hello.

i am having a huge problem installing Oracle 9.2.0.1.0 Client on Gentoo 1.4. i followed most of directions on http://www.puschitz.com/OracleOnLinux.shtml, mainly the dirs to setup and the env vars, but i keep getting this weird behavior.

First, it asks me twice for the Installation Types. After my second time of selecting Client->runtime, it gives me the following error:

Error: A runtime exception occured while setting s_operatingSystemnull in component Oracle9i Client 9.2.0.1.0 . Installation cannot continue for this component.

and then it asks if i would like to continue or exit. either choice, it just exits....

any help would be appreciated at all,
thank ahead of time,
-- neoTheCat

Forget it as long as your system has been compiled with gcc 3.2.1, Oracle is compiled with 2.95.3 and there are several issues with libraries that can not used.

Oracle is not certified with Gentoo (it will never be), but I will try to help anyone of you who tries to get it to run (if possible).

If you need Oracle on Gentoo, use a 1.2 CD and don't upgrade the compiler to 3.2.1. I have had Oracle running without a hitch using 2.95.3.

You may be able to install Oracle 9.2 on Gentoo (I have), but the moment you try to startup an instance, it seems like the instance is hanging for a long time prior to giving you an ora-3113 (Server connection terminated) and the alert.log does not show any errors. However, there is a tracefile generated, which basically is an ora-7445 (Core dump) and now it starts to get a little tricky, but basically it is because the Oracle object code is from 2.95.3 and when you relinked Oracle as a part of the installation using gcc 3.2.1, it messes up the executable in some aspects and you will never get an instance up and running.

Oracle 10i will be compiled with gcc 3.x.

Erik

[rizzo]

son of a bitch.

I guess I should have thought of this. Well there goes 2 days down the drain. :p

[drumz]

I beg to differ. I have had Oracle 9i running under the Gentoo 1.4 release candidate for quite some time now on my laptop.

I haven't looked at the install instructions posted in one of the previous posts to see what it says, but I'm a DBA by day and experienced only one minor issue getting it installed. During the linking process a dialog box comes up stating that a link failed. At that point you drop over to a shell window, edit a specific make file, return to the dialog box and click on the 'Retry' button. It then proceeds along without a hitch. The info should be available up at the technet.oracle.com (free registration required) in the forums area (I'll be happy to see if I can find it again if anyone wants it).

Drumz

[drumz]

Forgot one thing:

I initially had a problem during the install - it would lock up during the install at certain points. The extraction of the archives didn't indicate any errors (corrupted download from Oracle), but after redownloading the 2nd cd the problem went away for me and the next time I ran the installer it worked perfectly.

This was all started under a fresh install of Gentoo 1.4rc_1, which has been 'emerge --update world' on a regular basis.

Drumz

[rizzo]

Hmmm ... son of a bitch (again). Oh well I can't spend any more time re-re-formatting my box. :p

[ebrostig]

I beg to differ. I have had Oracle 9i running under the Gentoo 1.4 release candidate for quite some time now on my laptop.

I haven't looked at the install instructions posted in one of the previous posts to see what it says, but I'm a DBA by day and experienced only one minor issue getting it installed. During the linking process a dialog box comes up stating that a link failed. At that point you drop over to a shell window, edit a specific make file, return to the dialog box and click on the 'Retry' button. It then proceeds along without a hitch. The info should be available up at the technet.oracle.com (free registration required) in the forums area (I'll be happy to see if I can find it again if anyone wants it).

Drumz

Hmmm..
Could you please be a little bit more specific about what you installed from 9i? Was it just the client or the complete database?

Also what did you edit in what make file?

I would also like to know the versions of your glibc at least.

SQL*plus and some of the other utilities are running fine, but you will not be able to get the database running.


Erik

[drumz]

Ok, it finally appears that my install is now broken (I've 'emerge --update...' a bunch of times since I last started it). It WAS working when I had installed it under Gentoo 1.4rc_1 (clean install). Client stuff (SQL*Plus to another box I have) IS working fine even right now - I verified I was able to connect to another remote box.

Boy does this put a crimper in my plans on using my laptop for some OCI development I was planning....

Anyhow, the listener starts up fine and I can check the status fine and shut it down.

When attempting to startup the database itself, the startup command issues fine and the drive starts to churn like it's going to startup. Then it just sits there, never to return (the 'startup' command in SQL*Plus that is).

It IS allocating memory though, a quick execution of the ipcs command shows the memory segments......

Anyhow, my current glibc is: 2.3.1-r2.

Gonna keep poking at it since I'm a stubborn.

Drumz

[drumz]

Whoops, forgot to include: When I installed Oracle 9i I performed a full database install (customized to include/not include certain options I did/did not want) with client libraries, etc.

In fact, I did a custom database during the install so I could tweak the database parameters to what I needed......

Drumz

[drumz]

Ok, I'm befuddled. I can fully understand why ebrostig has problems (assuming of course that my initial install of 1.4rc1 had the older compiler when I initially intalled Oracle which it probably did at that time - emerge --update has upgraded it to the 3.2.1 version).

This begs the question that if it was working then, why am I getting the same error message:

SQL> connect / as sysdba
Connected to an idle instance.
SQL> startup

ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel
SQL>

It should work fine since it hasn't been relinked since that initial install and it was working then. Unless something else installed/upgraded in the 'emerge --update' since then has caused a problem.

Drumz (glad I run it under Solaris at work - don't get me wrong, I love gentoo/linux, but it drives me nuts that Oracle keeps breaking or you can't do a straight install without having to tweak something differntly all the time).

[drumz]

Now that I've been unable to sleep , annoyed by the fact that my Oracle install is no longer working......

Since it was originally working when installed, my problem can't be related to the new gcc. Must be new glibc.

Isn't there a way to have multiple versions of the same package installed under portage at the same time? If so, is this possible with an OS critical package like glibc?

Drumz

[drumz]

Hoping that a simple downgrade of glibc would do the trick since I had the database working before, I did that, did an ldconfig, rebooted and ended up with the same results.

I wonder what it is that's causing it not to start since it worked originally.....

Drumz

[drumz]

Well, it's with much sadness that I must report that after spending an entire day of tweaking my system in order to get Oracle 9i running again that the system became completely unrecoverable.

So, knowing that others have been unable to get 9i installed and working (even just the client stuff) under the current versions, and that my 9i install that originally worked before I 'emerge -u world' something that inadvertantly broke it, I am returning to using Redhat on my laptop (and returning to the rpm h3** (and manual compilation/installation/maintenance of many tools I use that don't come in RPM format) that I happily left behind after discovering Gentoo).

I am totally thrilled with Gentoo. Ability to custom compile for a specific machine (speed increase!!!), easy package management (portage), very easy installation of everything I use in my day to day tasks (portage again!), and constant updates with a super easy upgrade capability (portage once again!!). Complete and total control over the entire system. Gentoo is what I believe an OS should be: It just works, is stable, and easily maintained, but still with the ability to 'get your fingers dirty' if you want to - and only if you want to.

But, Oracle is something I need. I really have no choice but to return to an environment that for this single item is more supportive of it. There's probably a way of tweaking portage to work around the problem, but on my PIII laptop the install/getting extras I need installed takes too long.

Hopefully I'll be able to return to Gentoo in a not too distant future. At the very least if I get another box not requiring an Oracle install it'll definitely be running Gentoo. And for an open source project I'm working on (not released to the world yet) we'll be recommending Gentoo for many parts of the architecture .

Until next time,
Drumz

[rizzo]

Uhh are you just talking about gentoo 1.4 RC1? Because I can install the Oracle 9i (9.0.1) client just fine on gentoo 1.2. I haven't tried the latest 9.2 branch yet.

I hadn't really been following all your posts recently but I was under the impression that you were just trying to get it to work with gcc3.

[drumz]

That's correct, the problem is under Gentoo 1.4 rc1.

Under an initial, new, fresh install of Gentoo 1.4 rc1 when it originally came it my installation (9.2 version) worked fine - I was tickled pink.

Somewhere along the line since then, something has been upgraded that caused my 9i install to break - but just the database itself. I could still connect to remote machines using the client stuff (SQL*PLUS) perfectly fine.

I'm definitley planning to return to Gentoo sometime in the future when I'll be able to get Oracle running under it again.

Drumz

[ebrostig]

Folks,

Let me say this for the last time (probably not but... ):

1. Oracle 9i client under Gentoo 1.4 with gcc 3.x
You should be able to use it as a client, if anything fails, too bad.

2. Oracle 9i database under Gentoo 1.4 with gcc 3.x.
Will not work. Ever! Periode. End of story!
The ora-3113 seen during startup of a database is actually just telling you that you lost contact with the dedicated server process. This process dies with an ora-7445 (core dump). The problem lies, as I stated in one of my earlier posts that Oracle is compiled with gcc 2.95 and using gcc 3.x under Gentoo to relink Oracle works all the way up until you start using some of the shared memory functionality.

3. Oracle 9i with Gentoo 1.2 and gcc 2.95
Both database and client works fine.

Oracle has never and will never certify the databases with Gentoo. The only 2 distributiuons currently certified with Oracle 9i is RedHat Advanced Server 2.1 and SuSE SLES 7.1

Don't ever try to create a TAR with Oracle on any other Linux distribution as the only answer you will get from us is: Please move to a certified platform!"

Erik

[rizzo]

Oracle has never and will never certify the databases with Gentoo.

Why is that?

[ebrostig]

Oracle has never and will never certify the databases with Gentoo.

Why is that?

The reason is very simple.

In order to ensure that you are running Oracle on a stable platform, which all of our customers are interested in, we have decided to certify it against distributions that will stay stable for a certain amount of time. Gento is a very dynamic distributions, people can install both stable and unstable packages which will, sooner or later, break Oracle.

Besides this, the cost of certifying a distribution is failry high and there is a lot of work involved on our and on the distributions part.

It is basically a business justification and we don't want to maintain staff that knows the intricate details of too many distributions. Currently we also do OS support on redHat AS 2.1 in addition to normal Oracle support.

Erik

[rizzo]

"We"?

Do you work for Oracle?

[ebrostig]

"We"?

Do you work for Oracle?

Yes

Erik

[rizzo]

Ah. Just wanted to make sure of my sources.

Can you send me any free shirts?

[ebrostig]

Ah. Just wanted to make sure of my sources.

Can you send me any free shirts?

LOLOLOLOL!

I don't work in sales or marketing

Erik

[rizzo]

Then just whatever you have in your closet at home will be fine. I'm desparate for clothes.

[ebrostig]

Then just whatever you have in your closet at home will be fine. I'm desparate for clothes.

I'll let you in on a little company secret.... Plz....don't tell anyone...

We don't get much Oracle labeled clothes, we actually have to pay for it ourselves, but if you work in Marketing or Sales... Now that's a different story.. For potential customers, you know.

So, my closet consists of stuff I have bought and it do not carry the Oracle logo Sorry!

Erik

[rizzo]

Yeah that's what I wanted. Just YOUR clothes.

OK this is off-topic enough.