2. Starting off

2.1 Prerequisites

At least 800M free on your hard disk. Type:

bash$ df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/hda2             5.3G  3.6G  1.4G  72% /

and read the field Avail.

Hardware

The steps we are going to describe allow to have Oracle 8i, version 8.1.7 running on:

• a laptop Toshiba Satellite 2800-100 with 128Mb RAM and a 600 Mhz Intel Celeron;
• others ....

In any case, never underestimate Oracle's system prerequisites.

2.2 Linux setup

Distribution

We focus on a Linux RedHat 7.2 distribution, since we had problems with it and we wanted to use it. The steps we are going to describe should work on any Red Hat 7.2 based Linux distribution.

Distribution Setup

We assume you have your Linux RedHat 7.2 box installed and working in a reasonable way for you. In any case, 'base' packages, X Windows (the installation routine is a Java GUI) and the development tools regardless of whether you intend doing any coding or not is what you need.

Setting users and groups

Login as root:

$ su - root

and type whatever password you decided root must have.

Create groups:

bash# groupadd oinstall
bash# groupadd dba
bash# groupadd oper

Create oracle user and set its password:

bash# useradd oracle -g oinstall -G dba,oper
bash# passwd oracle (to change password)

Installing the right Java Virtual Machine

The only Java Virtual Machine compatible with Oracle 8i, version 8.1.7, is: ftp://sunsite.dk/mirrors/java-linux/JDK-1.1.8/i386/v3/jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2.
Do not think: "newer versions will be less buggy", as the installer probably won't work. And don't think.

Once downloaded it, move it:

bash# mv jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2 /usr/local

untar it:

bash# tar xvIf jdk118_v3-glibc-2.1.3.tar.bz2

and create a symbolic link to the folder the command here above has just created:

bash# ln -s /usr/local/jdk118_v3 /usr/local/java

Kernel parameters

Oracle documentation suggests that you make changes to the Linux kernel so you can get more shared memory. If you decide to follow that way, keep the instructions in the Oracle documentation and the Linux Kernel HOWTO at hand to build your new kernel.

In fact, the required changes can be made by setting some parameter in a suitable initialization file. Just follow some steps:

• bash# cd /etc
  

  and create a new file rc.config, if it does not exists. Inside rc.config copy the following four lines:

  cd /proc/sys/kernel
  echo 250 32000 100 128 > sem
  echo 4294967295 > shmmax
  echo 4096 > shmmni
  

• Edit the file /etc/rc and add the line:

  /etc/rc.config
  

In any case, if you want just to start playing with Oracle 8i, version 8.1.7, Linux RedHat 7.2 default settings can work fine, and you do not need to set any kernel parameter, as just described.

Setting up some libraries

There may be some compatibility problems between Oracle 8i and gcc versions >= 2.1. If you experience them, download these rpms:

compat-egcs-6.2-1.1.2.14.i386.rpm
compat-glibc-6.2-2.1.3.2.i386.rpm
compat-libs-6.2-3.i386.rpm

install them, as usual, by:

$ rpm -Uvh compat-egcs-6.2-1.1.2.14.i386.rpm compat-glibc-6.2-2.1.3.2.i386.rpm compat-libs-6.2-3.i386.rpm

bash# ln -s /bin/id /usr/bin/id

Final step

Reboot your machine and keep reading...