is it possible to get 8i to work on redhat 7.2?

I have been trying to install oracle 8.1.7 on a Redhat 7.2 system using
2.4.9-31 kernel with very poor success. Is it possible to run oracle 8i
on a current redhat system?

First I "installed" oracle, or at least went as far as the install program
is capable of. I have gotten beyond the genclntsh problems with linking
oracle (how old is that problem?). Still, it hangs on all the assistant
programs at the end. I installed the (old, old) correct version 1.18 jre
software. Searching through metalink I see I have too new a version of
glibc and must install some fix to get that to link right. But still the
GUI tools don't work well. I figured out that the net8 assistant was merely trying to create one simple line for the listener process. I did download the linux81701.tar from oracle as my install source BTW. So finally I think I have some working install and we try to create one of
our databases by importing it. Well, the GUI tool is not working today.
We use SQL and get the DB partially working. We decide we would really like
dbassist to work. So I go off and review the metalink docs again and decided that setup-stubs.sh and glibc fixes have to be redone. Well, that's
the end of oracle. Now I get some 1034 error when I try to start the test DB.
But the GUI tools work again, sort of. At least they *might* work. As
long as I keep killing jre processes when they don't, and don't try to use the GUIs too many times between reboots. ugh.

So, is this just an impossible combination to make work. The linux install
is quite solid, no errors, a very current redhat 7.2 install with current
patches. I like to be current with the OS. I don't want to use 9i. Does this combination of constraints mean I need to forget oracle on this
host? I've poked all over their web site, but searching doesn't yield much useful information, and although we do have some sort of support contract (yes, we did buy the software) I expect they'd just say redhat 7.2
is not certified. Do I need to find Redhat 6.2 and go back to an older
kernel?

Grrr. Now for a bit of venting. If I was a commercial software vendor I think I would most certainly fix a broken installation process. I would want people to install and use my program. If I was a database vendor and
had a public web site I would probably ensure simple searches for things
such as "linux" and "certified" would lead to documents. I guess when you own the database market these simple things are no longer important.
If you don't want to sell 8i, then purge it from your downloads and web
pages. We'd rather use that than the newer 9i until 9i's bugs and security
problems have been fleshed out a bit longer.

Please reply via posting, although the mail address is real it will be dropped once it fills with spam.

TIA for any help the net can provide.
"Fester" Received on Fri Apr 26 2002 - 11:19:25 CDT