ORA-12505 on Oracle Database 10g Express Edition: TNS:listene

Question

Hi all,
I am aware that there has been several posts about this subject but i still cant seem to be able to resolve my problem.
I am new to this but I did read through all information I could find and nothing helps.
I am trying to connect to oracle database from sqldeveloper and i am getting that error.
I am just following the tutorials on the net and they simply say to connect using SID: orcl but that does not seem to work for me.
Can someone please explain to me how to find out how to change the paths (i suspect the problem lies there) so i can connect?
Natalia

Answer 1

Oracle XE SID is ... XE and not orcl.
Did you also check:
$ oerr ora 12505
12505, 00000, "TNS:listener does not currently know of SID given in connect descriptor"
// *Cause:  The listener received a request to establish a connection to a
// database or other service. The connect descriptor received by the listener
// specified a SID for an instance (usually a database instance) that either
// has not yet dynamically registered with the listener or has not been
// statically configured for the listener. This may be a temporary condition
// such as after the listener has started, but before the database instance
// has registered with the listener.
// *Action:
//  - Wait a moment and try to connect a second time.
//  - Check which instances are currently known by the listener by executing:
//    lsnrctl services <listener name>
//  - Check that the SID parameter in the connect descriptor specifies
//    an instance known by the listener.
//  - Check for an event in the listener.log file.