Listener service not starting after installation (10g on WinXP)

Question

Hi!
I installed 10.2.0.1 on a Windows XP machine, but for some reason the listener service does not start up. If I start the service from the Windows service control panel I get:
The service "OracleOraDB10g_home1TNSListener" on "Local Computer" could not be started. Error 3: The system could not find the specified path."
The path for the servicing exe is "G:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\BIN\TNSLSNR", which is the correct path.
Executing "lsnrctl status" I get:
{code}
LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 27-MAI-2009 09:53:37
Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Anmeldung bei (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=xpdeveloper)(PORT=1521)))
TNS-12541: TNS: No Listener
TNS-12560: TNS: Error with protocol adapter
TNS-00511: No Listener
32-bit Windows Error: 61: Unknown error
{code}
Executing "lsnrctl start" I get:
{code}
LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 27-MAI-2009 10:02:10
Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
tnslsnr is getting started: Please wait...
Failed to start service, error 3.
TNS-12560: TNS: Error with protocol adapter
TNS-00530: Error with protocol adapter
{code}
When I open a another command shell and run the servicing exe "G:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\BIN\TNSLSNR" directly and executing "lsnrctl status" I get:
{code}
LSNRCTL for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on 27-MAI-2009 10:10:27
Copyright (c) 1991, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.
Anmeldung bei (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=TCP)(HOST=xpdeveloper)(PORT=1521)))
STATUS des LISTENER
Alias LISTENER
Version TNSLSNR for 32-bit Windows: Version 10.2.0.1.0 - Produ
ction
Startdatum 27-MAI-2009 10:10:17
Uptime 0 Tage 0 Std. 0 Min. 10 Sek.
Trace-Ebene off
Sicherheit ON: Local OS Authentication
SNMP OFF
Parameterdatei des Listener G:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\network\admin\listener.ora
Log-Datei des Listener G:\oracle\product\10.2.0\db_1\network\log\listener.log
Zusammenfassung Listening-Endpunkte...
(DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=tcp)(HOST=xpdeveloper)(PORT=1521)))
Der Listener unterst³tzt keine Services
Der Befehl wurde erfolgreich ausgef³hrt.
{code}
I can also successfully tnsping the listener.
Any ideas why the listener service fails to start?
Thanks a lot for your help,
Marcus

Answer 1

Hi Florian,
my understanding was that on Windows ORACLE_HOME is stored in the registry.
I have a correct path to my Oracle home directory under "HKLM\Software\Oracle\KEY_OraDB10g_home1\ORACLE_HOME".
Following your suggestion, I added a Windows environment variable "ORACLE_HOME" that points to the Oracle home directory, rebooted and tried to start the service again, but nothing changed.
Marcus