Problems installing Oracle Database Express Edition 11g

Question

I'm trying to install Oracle Database in (X)ubuntu 13.04 64-bit using this guide. Everything goed well until I get to the following step:

$ sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Configuration
-------------------------------------------------
This will configure on-boot properties of Oracle Database 11g Express 
Edition.  The following questions will determine whether the database should 
be starting upon system boot, the ports it will use, and the passwords that 
will be used for database accounts.  Press <Enter> to accept the defaults. 
Ctrl-C will abort.

Specify the HTTP port that will be used for Oracle Application Express [8080]:

Specify a port that will be used for the database listener [1521]:

Specify a password to be used for database accounts.  Note that the same
password will be used for SYS and SYSTEM.  Oracle recommends the use of 
different passwords for each database account.  This can be done after 
initial configuration:
Confirm the password:

Do you want Oracle Database 11g Express Edition to be started on boot (y/n) [y]:

Starting Oracle Net Listener...Done
Configuring database...
Database Configuration failed.  Look into /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/config/log for details

The log files show the following output:

:/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/config/log$ for l in *.log
> do
> echo $l
> cat $l
> done
cloneDBCreation.log
Create controlfile reuse set database "XE"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


BEGIN dbms_backup_restore.zerodbid(0); END;

*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
ORA-27101: shared memory realm does not exist
Linux-x86_64 Error: 2: No such file or directory
ORA-00845: MEMORY_TARGET not supported on this system
Create controlfile reuse set database "XE"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter system enable restricted session
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter database "XE" open resetlogs
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter database rename global_name to "XE"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter system switch logfile
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter system checkpoint
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter database drop logfile group 3
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


ALTER TABLESPACE TEMP ADD TEMPFILE '/u01/app/oracle/oradata/XE/temp.dbf' SIZE 20480K REUSE AUTOEXTEND ON NEXT 640K MAXSIZE UNLIMITED
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


select tablespace_name from dba_tablespaces where tablespace_name='USERS'
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


select sid, program, serial#, username from v$session
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter user sys identified by "oracle"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter user system identified by "oracle"
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


alter system disable restricted session
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


CloneRmanRestore.log
ORA-00845: MEMORY_TARGET not supported on this system
select TO_CHAR(systimestamp,'YYYYMMDD HH:MI:SS') from dual
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


declare
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


select TO_CHAR(systimestamp,'YYYYMMDD HH:MI:SS') from dual
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


postDBCreation.log
begin
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 



File created.

ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
ORA-27101: shared memory realm does not exist
Linux-x86_64 Error: 2: No such file or directory
ORA-00845: MEMORY_TARGET not supported on this system
select 'utl_recomp_begin: ' || to_char(sysdate, 'HH:MI:SS') from dual
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


BEGIN utl_recomp.recomp_serial(); END;

*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


select 'utl_recomp_end: ' || to_char(sysdate, 'HH:MI:SS') from dual
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


postScripts.log
CREATE OR REPLACE LIBRARY dbms_sumadv_lib AS '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/lib/libqsmashr.so';
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


BEGIN dbms_datapump_utl.replace_default_dir; END;

*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


commit
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


create or replace directory XMLDIR as '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/rdbms/xml'
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


DROP DIRECTORY ORACLE_OCM_CONFIG_DIR
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


DROP DIRECTORY ADMIN_DIR
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


DROP DIRECTORY WORK_DIR
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


BEGIN dbms_swrf_internal.cleanup_database(cleanup_local => FALSE); END;

*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 


commit
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01034: ORACLE not available 
Process ID: 0 
Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0 

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

I was in the same boat, trying to configure XE on a virtual machine (openSUSE 13.01 64bit).

The solution in my case was the missing hostname in /etc/hosts. You can examine the errors in /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/config/log/CloneRmanRestore.log at the very beginning (the path depends on your XE version).

Search for an info similar to: ORA-00119: invalid specification for system parameter LOCAL_LISTENER ORA-00130: invalid listener address '(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=linux-cn65.site)(PORT=1521))

So linux-cn65.site (the VM host) was missing. Add your host in /etc/hosts (as root):

127.0.0.1 linux-cn65.site <-- your host here

and run the configuration again (as root): sh /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Additional trickery

• if you do not have the error files in the log folder, you may re-install XE without h flag, like this:

  • to find your package: sudo rpm -qa | grep -i oracle
  • to remove it: sudo rpm -e oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64 <-- your package here

• install again without h flag: sudo rpm -iv oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm

oh, replace the version (oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm) with yours. Cheers ;)