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2. Starting off

2.1 Overview

In this section, i'll describe my system specification and software currently installed.

I will also describe what you need in order to complete this installation.

2.2 Prerequisites

Hardware

My system is a Celeron 466, 256Mb RAM. A number of HD's between 10 and 20Gig. All disks are UDMA 100 running on a Promise controller card. All home areas and a number of data areas for source code etc, are mounted from an NFS server. Oracle will be mounted on its own partition locally.

I think anything less than 128Mb RAM is pushing your luck.

May I add, my system is not a production system. It is a home based network. I use Oracle to prepare for the Oracle exams.

2.3 Linux setup

Choice of distribution

I am using Mandrake 8.0. This is my choice of distribution for no other reason than I like it.

Distribution Setup

When installing Linux, make sure you include the developement packages for glibc etc. This howto assumes that you have the binaries for gcc, cc and ld installed in /usr/bin.

Kernel parameters

The installation instructions suggest that you change kernel parameters. As I am using Oracle for educational reasons I did not change the kernel. If you wish to edit your kernel configuration then refer to the Oracle Install guide and Kernel howto's for more help.

Users and groups

I use the command line to add the relevant user groups and oracle user. Please make sure that you have root access.

To create the correct groups for the install, type the following logged on as root.

• groupadd sysdba
• groupadd sysoper
• groupadd oinstall
• create /usr/oracle OR mount a partition as /usr/oracle - I use a 1Gig partition
• chmod 755 /usr/oracle
• create /usr/oraInventory OR mount a partition as /usr/oraInventory - I use a 500Mb partition
• chown oracle:oinstall /usr/oraInventory
• useradd oracle -d /usr/oracle -g oinstall -G sysdba,sysoper -s /bin/csh
• passwd oracle - enter a password when prompted
• umask - should return 022 for Mandrake 8

Java Virtual Machine

You will need to download the jdk and jre from Blackdown website

You need to download the archives jre_1.1.6-v5-glibc-x86.tar and jdk118_v3-gllibc-2.1.3.tar

You may choose either bzip or gz archives.

You need to install these into /usr/local, you should have the following directories once complete, jre116_v5 and jdk118_v3.

GLIBC

You must install the i386-glibc-2.1-linux.tar. You can find these at Kernel.org.

You need to install the archive into /usr. The archive I found had the 'usr/' in the path, I therefore 'cd /' before un-taring the archive.

You should now have /usr/i386-glibc-2.1-linux installed.

2.3 Where to get Oracle

I use my copy solely for educational use. I have only one copy installed so I do not need to concern myself with licences etc.

Direct from Oracle

Download a copy direct from the Oracle website Oracle.com. or order the CD from them. There is a charge for the CD.

Buy the Book

Purchase the book, Oracle8i for Linux Starter Kit - Steve Bobrowski Published by Oracle Press/Orborne ISBN 0-07-212442-3. The installation paths/users and database schema are as described in this book for this howto. The installation instructions in the book are lacking when installing on a Mandrake 8 system. The book in general I would highly recommend as you do get the Oracle software included and a very good tutorial for general DBA roles.

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