Re: Oracle 8i for Linux Starter=Frustration. Help!

Uh, a cross post. I am just answering in one, you will check all newsgroups,  I think.

Comments emmbedded.

> Need an Oracle God to help me with 8i for linux!

Sorry, I am not, but will try to help.  

> I am would like to learn about oracle database software. Just
> purchased the Starter Kit that includes 8.1.6 Enterprise Edition. Now
> I have done some research on the install for this and found out that
> it is very difficult. I tried to cookbook together the install from
> various posts/oracle web site/etc. I was successful in getting it
> to install, but could not get the stubs patch to install.
>
> I now have a fresh install of Mandrake 8.0. No changes have been made
> to glibc.
>
> First question is where to get the correct glibc rpm to keep the
> installer from crashing, and from causing other problems to my system.
> MandrakeUpdate was smoking crack and fetching a different file for
> glibc 2.2.2-5, then it said that it would conflict with gcc or
> something like that. I want to make sure I am getting the appropriate
> files.

I am not familiar with Mandrake but are there some compatibility packages?
RedHat offers

  compat-egcs-6.2-1.1.2.14 
  compat-egcs-c++-6.2-1.1 
  compat-egcs-g77-6.2-1.1 
  compat-egcs-objc-6.2-1.1 
  compat-glibc-6.2-2.1.3.2 
  compat-libs-6.2-3.i386 
  compat-libstdc++-6.2-2.9

If so, install them!

> Second, on page 19 of the book, I do ok until it comes to setting the
> environment variables. Am I supposed to login as my Oracle user, an
> type '$HOME/.bash_profile' to set these variables? This relates to
> the problem with the stubs patch saying that ORACLE_HOME was not in
> the environment.

When you are using bash, the ~/.bash_profile file should be executed automatically. If other local users should be able to use Oracle (sqlplus etc.) you can include the Oracle environment settings in /etc/profile.d/. There are shell scripts which you can use as a template.
If nothing helps, try:

prompt> source ~/.bash_profile

Probably a stupid question, but did you enter your desired ORACLE_HOME in ~/.bash_profile?

> Third, I am using this link to get to the stubs file.
>
> http://download.oracle.com/otn/linux/oracle8i/glibc-2.1.3-stubs.tar.gz

OK.  

> My plan is this.
>
> 1. Update the appropriate glibc rpm to allow the installer to run.

Use the compatibility packages.

> 2. Install Oracle based on the books instruction verbatim.

Right.

> 3. Do not install the educational database. First install the stubs
> as above.

Good.  

> Questions.
>
> Will a custom install allow me to keep the installer from attempting
> the database?

Yes.  

> Once the stubs are installed, where is dbassist located to install the
> database after the fact?

$ORACLE_HOME/bin

-- 
          The degree of normality in a database is inversely             
                    proportional to that of its DBA