guys i have installed rh9
/hda1 /
/hda2 /oradata1
/hda3 /oradata2
/hda4 /oradata3
/hda5 /orasoft

the /tmp file is under root. but when i tried to install oracle9 it says it needs to be mounted on a device like /dev/hda6 /tmp. now that i have gone to single mode and deleted /tmp which was on root and created a new mount point : /dev/hda6 /tmp

now the problem is after the login screen comes the following error is coming :

[dmr_i380_wait_ring]*ERROR* space <some digits> wanted <some digits>
[dmr_i380_wait_ring]*ERROR* space lockup

Check the accessrights of /tmp. Should look like this:
rwxrwxrwt 13 root root 4096 Aug 6 15:33 tmp
Also, next time don't delete /tmp, but delete all files inside, then simply add the mountpoint.
If the rights of the dir are okay, please post the output of df -H /tmp and your /etc/fstab.

and created a new mount point : /dev/hda6 /tmp

Simpel question: you do have a partition /hda6?

this answer is to powadha: yes, i do have a partition /dev/hda6

i have recreated the partitions and created a new mount point for /tmp and have succesfully installed oracle on it, but one quiestion still haunts me i.e, does really oracle need an /tmp as mount point and if so why does it need????

I don't know the specifics probably for oracle but in a server environment and such, files get written to /tmp all the time from users.. it if so happens that tmp gets full.. it will only take up the space on its own partition.. not affecting / like you previously had it mounted on. If / gets full, your in trouble, but now /tmp can't ever exceed its own limit to affect other directories or mounts.

wow, that's a cool good tech reason u have given trickykid.