Oracle XE 11g homepage not displaying

Question

I have been searching for a solution to my problem for a while now but none seems to be working, this is my last attempt before I go for re-installation.

I today installed Oracle XE 11g Release 2 through its installation wizard and it went fine. The trouble I seem to be having is that I can't open the browser homepage.

The browsers are giving me the error: cannot establish a connection to the server at 127.0.0.1:8080

I am on Windows 7 32-bit and i have downloaded & installed the XE for the same.

From reading all the possible answers I gathered that some info might be needed before my question is answered. So are the results from various commands that I have run which all the answers asked for.

1)

C:\Users\lenove> netstat -nao | find "8080"

No result for this one

2)

C:\Users\lenovo> lsnrctl status

LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on 18-JAN-2013 16:46:43

Copyright (c) 1991, 2010, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC1)))
STATUS of the LISTENER
------------------------
Alias                     LISTENER
Version                   TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production
Start Date                18-JAN-2013 16:18:54
Uptime                    0 days 0 hr. 27 min. 52 sec
Trace Level               off
Security                  ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP                      OFF
Default Service           XE
Listener Parameter File   C:\oracle\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\network\admin\listener.ora
Listener Log File         C:\oracle\oraclexe\app\oracle\diag\tnslsnr\Voldemort\listener\alert\log.xml
Listening Endpoints Summary...
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=Voldemort)(PORT=1521)))
Services Summary...
Service "CLRExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "CLRExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Service "xe" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "xe", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
The command completed successfully

3)

SQL> SELECT dbms_xdb.gethttpport FROM dual;
SP2-0640 : Not Connected

4) Contents of oraclexe/app/oracle/product/11.20/server/network/ADMIN/listener.ora (oraclexe is the default installation directory suggested by the Installation Wizard)

SID_LIST_LISTENER =
  (SID_LIST =
    (SID_DESC =
      (SID_NAME = PLSExtProc)
      (ORACLE_HOME = C:\oracle\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server)
      (PROGRAM = extproc)
    )
    (SID_DESC =
      (SID_NAME = CLRExtProc)
      (ORACLE_HOME = C:\oracle\oraclexe\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server)
      (PROGRAM = extproc)
    )
  )

LISTENER =
  (DESCRIPTION_LIST =
    (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = IPC)(KEY = EXTPROC1))
      (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = Voldemort)(PORT = 1521))
    )
  )

DEFAULT_SERVICE_LISTENER = (XE)

I tried using both chrome and firefox (latest versions of both) but still couldn't get it.

Note: This is my first attempt at oracle so I was a bit wary of trying every solution suggested by the threads, hence my own thread.

Thanx in advance!

Answer 1

I installed on a Windows 7 pro (under local administrator account) and it ran smooth. I installed the exact same bundle on a Windows 7 Home Premium (the UAC prompts for elevation to local ADMIN) and I had the issue: no XE home page.

You shall check first that windows services (via control panel > Admin tools > services) OracleServiceXE and OracleXETNSListener are indeed started.

You can then check (as illustrated in top post) the TNS listner status with (adjust \Oracle\XE to your installation path)

C:\Oracle\XE\app\oracle\product\11.2.0\server\bin\lsnrctl status

which yields the Listening Endpoints, and if you do not see three lines like (the third one likely missing !):

  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=ipc)(PIPENAME=\\.\pipe\EXTPROC1ipc)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=BHPPC)(PORT=1521)))
  (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=BHPPC)(PORT=8080))(Presentation=HTTP)(Session=RAW))

then that's exactly where the problem is. The trick is to take note of the host name on which the TNS service listens (e.g. BHPPC in the above example). Then do add en entry into your C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc\hosts like (on a line of its own, no space before 127.0.0.1, followed by spaces or tab, followed by your hostname):

 127.0.0.1  BHPPC

and restart both windows services listed above. Check again the Listening Endpoints with the lsnrctl status command; if the magical third line is now listed, the XE home page will work. There's indeed a bug in hostname resolution and you shall provide the TNS service with an explicit IP address mapping which, surprisingly, it doesn't need to listen OK to port 1521.