Attention! About problems with Oracle 8.1.6 on newer Linux distributions!!

Question

Hello all, I've just got some feedback from a helful person at http://www.crunge.com/ about the problems concerning RedHat Linux 7.0 and Oracle 8.1.6, this MAY apply to other newer linux distributions.
I've tried, without luck, to install Oracle on RedHat 7.0 and Slackware 7 (the newest one), and it would not install properly, kept stopping right about when the database initialization started at 80% finished install procedure. Sp i wrote them a mail, not expecting an answer really, but I did got an answer, and below is what the person said;
Thanks for the feedback.
Oracle 8.1.6 does not work under Red Hat Linux 7. Yes, that's the problem
that I mentioned in the doc--you get to 80% and the DBCA crashes and the
Oracle executables die.
I've heard, but I haven't tried it myself, that if you install the latest
glibc errata (2.1.94) then the DBCA completes but the Oracle executables
still die. The DBCA problem was apparently a Java issue that is fixed in
the errata. But you're still out of luck since the exes won't work.
It might appear that this is a problem with Red Hat Linux 7. But it appears
that it is a problem with some assumptions that Oracle made, assumptions
that worked with glibc 2.1.3 (the C library included with RHL 6.2) but which
prove false with later glibc versions. As other Linux distributions adopt
the new glibc Oracle will fail to work on them as well.
The best advice I can give at this point is to install and run Oracle on
Red Hat Linux 6.2. Hopefully Oracle will address the glibc issues with the
8.1.7 release.
Chris
p.s. Do not construe this
as an official Red Hat response; I merely forwarded your e-mail from my
home account. This response and the web pages I put up are mine.
So i guess one sollution to the problem is to try a bit older version of the linux you are having problems with (i tried it on RH 6.1 and it worked like a dream).
Another solution can be to wait it out to check and see if Oracle put a fix out here on technet...?
Hope this helps people bogged down in fustration.
Regards
Ole-Henrik Helin
Computer consultant, Mesan AS
Norway

Answer 1

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Graham Strang ([email protected]):
Hey all. Just to let you know that it is entierly possible to get Oracle to install under RedHat 7 and run happily. I have done it on two differenct machines. There is a bit of fooling with glibc to get it to work. However after you do that it works like a dream. VALinux has a work around posted at: http://ftp.valinux.com/pub/support/hjl/glibc/sdk/2.1/
The READEME.Oracle8i has the work around and the two tar balls are the necessary files. I followed the directions to the letter and they worked like a dream. Any questions feel free to drop me a line.
Cheers,
Graham<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
OK, so i followed your instructions to the letter (several times), sure I get past the 80% bug but now I have new erros coming up , -"Error in invoking target install of makefile /usr/oracle/sqlplus/lib/ins_sqlplus.mk". I get a whole series of these errors for various mk files. These errors apear during the link phase of the install, prior to the glibc workaround I was not getting this. I am a newbie to Linux and trying to give it a serious go but so far I have had little luck
Any help appreciated.
Nick
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