Forget Oracle on Modern Linux
 

Don't waste your time considering Oracle on Linux unless you've already purchased an Oracle license. Prototyping, proof-of-concept, etc. is impossible. There are several bugs in the currently-available Oracle installation for Linux that prevents install without several patches. These patches do not come bundled with the free download and they are only available to those with support contracts via Metalink ( http://www.oracle.com/support/metalink/index.html ).

As an example, there is a bug where Oracle's linking is botched...

/usr/bin/ld: /mnt/windows/oracle/u01/app/oracle/9i/rdbms/lib/oracle: hidden symbol `__fixunssfdi' in /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i586-mandrake-linux-gnu/3.3.1/libgcc.a(_fixunssfdi.oS) is referenced by DSO

Because of this obstacle, we are no longer considering Oracle because we can't demo a proof-of-concept using it on Linux. Goodbye Oracle, hello open source. Probably going with PostgreSQL.

di11rod

Have you tried using one of the distros that Oracle says that they support?

Oracle only supports older distros without patches. Anything current, whether it be Redhat or Mandrake requires Oracle-created patches in order to install.

http://www.puschitz.com/InstallingOr...msTipsAndHints

That's why I said, "modern" linux. They should make their patches for Linux available with the downloadable installer.

di11rod

FYI:

http://www.sh.nu/download/oracle/p30...9204_LINUX.zip

Redhat 7.[123] do not require patches- i did not realize
2 year old distro's are "ancient"

how much $$ do you think my antique Mandrake 7.1 is worth?

My line of thought was that since is was for prototyping, you might be able to use an older version just to prove that you could get most or all of the needed functionality. You need to be prepared to spend a little money up front when Oracle is a serious candidate for the DB.

try none.
no but seriously..why would you stick on with such an old distibution...when you habe much better new ones coming out...and if you do keep updating your distro then it is no longer mandy 7.1..probably a newer one...and if you dont upgrade your machine..then you should.

Thanks for your comments, stickman, et. al.

The problem with using an old distro for proof of concept is that it isn't a proof of concept. We can't say, "It works on Redhat 7.1, so we'll deploy on Mandrake 9.2"

And if we push a box into production with an old distro, we're going to have phone calls next year when new vulnerabilities are found for the binaries on that install and Mandrake doesn't support it anymore. Suddenly our closed-book project has a second chapter where we migrate data to the Oracle server running on the new older version of Mandrake that Oracle works on.

I guess I just don't believe they are fully supporting Linux. They've got the patches for modern compatibility, but they aren't available for free download. This encourages people like myself to either:

1. Use Oracle on WinXP
2. Use PostgreSQL on Mandrake 9.2

di11rod

Sure you can. The free downloads are for development and prototyping only. They are not licensed for production use. As soon as you want to go into production, you'll need to buy a full license, and then you have access to all your patches to deploy on a recent Linux version. Just be sure to include any potential caveats in the report that you do on the prototype.

You might want to go ahead and try to build your app first with either PostgreSQL or mySQL, and see how far you get. You might discover that you don't need Oracle.