Re: The Denis Prize

From: Glen A Stromquist <glen_stromquist_at_no_spam_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2004 17:45:34 GMT
Message-ID: <21wTb.16882$Zi2.4541@edtnps84>

Howard J. Rogers wrote:
> "Daniel Morgan" <damorgan_at_x.washington.edu> wrote in message
> news:1075664727.753301_at_yasure...
>

>>Howard J. Rogers wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I would like to offer $5000 (aussie dollars, that is, which I realise

>
> makes
>

>>>this as valuable as a Zimbabwean tobacco farm in a drought) to the first
>>>person that can produce an install of Oracle for Linux that works with

>
> the
>

>>>mere insertion of a CD. Said install must work with all and any Linux
>>>distributions (it's all the same operating system, after all, isn't

>
> it?). It
>

>>>must be as automatic as the, cough, Windows install is. It must do
>>>everything right, and it must automatically give you the chance to say
>>>whether or not you'd like a database, listener, agent and management

>
> server
>

>>>to automatically start at reboot. And it must make those things
>>>automatically re-start if you ask for them to. Multiple CDs are fine,

>
> but
>

>>>crappy install routines aren't.
>>>
>>>Since the prize is named in honour of my father, it's got to be an
>>>installation that he would have coped with. Namely, a couple of OK's and

>
> a
>

>>>Yes.The Oracle-supplied nonsense is assumed to be standard.
>>>
>>>I'm looking for slick, simple, mindless, automatic, fault-tolerant and
>>>Windows-like.
>>>
>>>Serious offer, by the way. Claims to be addressed to admin_at_dizwell.com
>>>
>>>Regards
>>>HJR
>>
>>Well if Mark Townsend doesn't take the prize he should hang his head in
>>shame.  ;-) Personally I've always thought the entire root.sh stuff was
>>ridiculous.
>>
>>Uh Howard ... you didn't mention a version or edition?

>
>
> Well, I said it should work like it does on Windows, so the Oracle edition
> is irrelevant. Enterprise or Standard, it should make no difference. With
> all that Linux talent out there, it cannot be that hard to write a decent
> automated installer.
>
>

>>And how about
>>against which version of the Linux O/S?

>
>
> Somewhere else I've finally listed them. Mandrake 9.1, 9.2, Suse 7.3, Red
> Hat 8 and 9 and Advanced Server 2.1 -and I suppose 3 as well. Now some of
> those (ie, most of those) are not supported distros. So, I will accept an
> Advanced Server and RH8 and RH9 installer.
>
>

>>Do you really want a routine
>>that works perfectly installing Oracle 6.0 on SUSE 1.0? Or do you expect
>>something that works with all Oracle versions and editions against all
>>versions of Linux by all companies that sell it?

>
>
> No, latest distros and latest versions of Oracle... I'm not judging 10g,
> though. Just 9i Release 2 would do for starters.
>
> Essentially, I would like to see someone come up with installer technology
> for Linux that is commensurate in terms of ease of use with the Windows
> stuff. Let the installer have a button you can click to say "Hey, I'm a
> Linux Guru and don't need all this automated crap" if you must. But for the
> rest of us (ie, me), I want an automated installer so my fingers can have a
> rest.
>
>

>>I'd suggest a bit more detail will make it more likely that everyone
>>will be happy with your very generous offer.

>
>
> Fair comment, and I hope I have clarified enough. I like the idea of prizes.
> They get people pedalling across the English Channel in gossamer-weight
> aeroplanes. They get people planning into-space trips via private
> enterprise. They appear to be able to motivate and clarify the issues. I
> just thought I'd have a go at trying to motivate this allegedly enormous
> army of open source programmers out there to consider the poor bloody end
> user. And to get them to provide an installation experience which doesn't
> remind me of my last root canal.
>
> I say again: it's a serious offer.
>
> Regards
> HJR
>
>

For the life of me I can't see why this wasn't done before, I know the distros have their "minor" differences but I would *think* that someone half-decent at scripting could write a routine that checked for oracle account etc (SuSE already does all that for you), created neccesary users & groups if they didnt exist, prompt for distro/release and then performed neccesary actions such as orainstRoot.sh etc. - you get the picture. If you get prompted for root password a few times so be it.

All the script would need to do is basically automate all the things needed before the ./runInstaller takes place, with the possible exception of editing the env_ctx.mk file as I'm still not sure why that sometimes needs editing and sometimes doesnt...

5 large? pretty generous Howard! mebbe I'll take a crash course in 'nix scripting, but I'm sure there are people out there that could put this together in an afternoon or two (you listening Hans?), create the cd's and voila, more ebay dollars! :-)

btw, can't you get metalink access by purchasing/licensing personal edition?

cheers! Received on Mon Feb 02 2004 - 11:45:34 CST