Installing Oracle 11g R2 Express Edition on Ubuntu 12.04 64-bit

              Recently I installed Oracle 11g R2 Express Edition on my ubuntu 12.04 ( Precise Pangolin). But for this, I have to google a lot and had to install two times to get a fully working environment. So, I thought it would be better if I share my experience with my fellow ubuntu'ers so that they don't have to face the troubles that I encountered. I have came up with following series of steps ( mostly derived from the link source I given at the end of this post ) for easy and hassle-free installation.

              But at first, I must inform you about the limitations of Oracle 11g R2 Express Edition (XE) which are as follows :

• The Installer released by Oracle is only meant for 64-bit (x86_64) systems. If you wish to install the 32-bit version , see installing oracle xe on ubuntu 32-bit
• It will consume, at most, processing resources equivalent to one CPU.
• Only one installation of Oracle Database XE can be performed on a single computer.
• The maximum amount of user data in an Oracle Database XE database cannot exceed 11 GB.
• The maximum amount of RAM that Oracle XE uses cannot exceed 1 GB, even if more is available.

Now the steps for Installation :

1) Download the Oracle 11gR2 express edition installer from the link given below:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/express-edition/downloads/index.html

( You will need to create a free oracle web account if you don't already have it )

2) Unzip it :

unzip oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm.zip

3) Install the following packages :

sudo apt-get install alien libaio1 unixodbc vim

4) Convert the red-hat ( rpm ) package to Ubuntu-package :

sudo alien --scripts -d oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm

(Note: this may take a while , till that time you can go for step 5 )

5) Do the following pre-requisite things:

a) Create a special chkconfig script :

The Red Hat based installer of Oracle XE 11gR2 relies on /sbin/chkconfig, which is not used in Ubuntu. The chkconfig package available for the current version of Ubuntu produces errors and my not be safe to use. Below is a simple trick to get around the problem and install Oracle XE successfully: 

sudo vim /sbin/chkconfig

(copy and paste the following into the file )
#!/bin/bash
# Oracle 11gR2 XE installer chkconfig hack for Ubuntu
file=/etc/init.d/oracle-xe
if [[ ! `tail -n1 $file | grep INIT` ]]; then
echo >> $file
echo '### BEGIN INIT INFO' >> $file
echo '# Provides: OracleXE' >> $file
echo '# Required-Start: $remote_fs $syslog' >> $file
echo '# Required-Stop: $remote_fs $syslog' >> $file
echo '# Default-Start: 2 3 4 5' >> $file
echo '# Default-Stop: 0 1 6' >> $file
echo '# Short-Description: Oracle 11g Express Edition' >> $file
echo '### END INIT INFO' >> $file
fi
update-rc.d oracle-xe defaults 80 01

Save the above file and provide appropriate execute privilege :

       sudo chmod 755 /sbin/chkconfig

b) Set the Kernel parameters :

Oracle 11gR2 XE requires to set the following additional kernel parameters:

sudo vim /etc/sysctl.d/60-oracle.conf 

(Enter the following) 

# Oracle 11g XE kernel parameters  

fs.file-max=6815744  

net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=9000 65000  

kernel.sem=250 32000 100 128 

kernel.shmmax=536870912 

(Save the file) 

Note: kernel.shmmax = max possible value , e.g. size of physical RAM ( in bytes e.g. 512MB RAM == 512*1024*1024 == 536870912 bytes ) 

Verify the change : 

sudo cat /etc/sysctl.d/60-oracle.conf 

Load new kernel parameters: 

sudo service procps restart  

Verify: sudo sysctl -q fs.file-max 

       -> fs.file-max = 6815744 

c) Increase the system swap space : Analyze your current swap space by following command :

           free -m 

Minimum swap space requirement of Oracle 11gR2 XE is 2 GB . In case, your is lesser , you can increase it by following steps in my one of previous post .

d) make some more required changes :

i) sudo ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk 

ii) mkdir /var/lock/subsys 

iii) touch /var/lock/subsys/listener 

6) Now you are ready to install Oracle 11gR2 XE. Go to the directory where you created the ubuntu package file in Step 4 and enter following commands in terminal :

i) sudo dpkg --install oracle-xe_11.2.0-2_amd64.deb  

Update : Before you proceed to next step , do have a look at this trouble-shooting post in order to avoid MEMORY TARGET or any other "shared memory" error.

ii) sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure 

Enter the following configuration information:

• A valid HTTP port for the Oracle Application Express (the default is 8080)  
• A valid port for the Oracle database listener (the default is 1521) 
• A password for the SYS and SYSTEM administrative user accounts

Update / Note:- Few people have also reported ORA-01031: insufficient privileges error while connecting to the database. To avoid this simply use "oracle" ( without quotes ) as your password in this step. 

• Confirm password for SYS and SYSTEM administrative user accounts
• Whether you want the database to start automatically when the computer starts (next reboot).

7) Before you start using Oracle 11gR2 XE you have to set-up more things :

a) Set-up the environmental variables :

Add following lines to your .bashrc :

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe
export ORACLE_SID=XE
export NLS_LANG=`$ORACLE_HOME/bin/nls_lang.sh`
export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
 

b) execute your .profile to load the changes:

     

          . ./.profile

8) Start the Oracle 11gR2 XE :

sudo service oracle-xe start

The output should be similar to following :

user@machine:~$ sudo service oracle-xe start
Starting Oracle Net Listener.
Starting Oracle Database 11g Express Edition instance.
user@machine:~$
 

8) Create your user :

a) start sqlplus and login as sys :

sqlplus sys as sysdba

( provide the password you gave while configuring the oracle in Step 6 (ii) ).

This should come to following :

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed May 9 12:12:16 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Enter password:

Connected to:

Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production

SQL>

b) Enter following on the sql prompt : Replace username and password by your desired ones.

SQL> create user username identified by password;

User created.

SQL> grant connect,resource to username;

Grant succeeded. 

 

9) Now as you have created the user , you can login to it :

user@machine:~$ sqlplus

SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed May 9 12:28:48 2012

Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Enter user-name: temp

Enter password:

Connected to:

Oracle Database 11g Express Edition Release 11.2.0.2.0 - 64bit Production

SQL> select 2+2 from dual;

2+2

----------

4

SQL>

Reference Links :-

1. Oracle 11g reference Documents