Be sure you don't include a trailing slash on your ORACLE_HOME environment variable, as the client oracle process needs to find the shared memory segment by using the very same ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID settings as are used when starting up the database instance. Any mismatch will result in the client connecting to what's known as an "idle instance".

If you see the following message when you type sqlplus / as sysdba then be sure to double-check your ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID settings as well as using the commands ipcs and ps -ef|grep ora_ to check if the oracle "instance" is actually running.

  Connected to an idle instance.

Create the Database Administrator group

Environment

Consult the Oracle Guide

Creating a Convenient Install CD-ROM

Preparing to Launch the Installer

Launch the Installer

Handling the Expected Problems

Unlock Accounts

Life as a GUI-dba

Database bindings for Python

cd Products/DCOracle2
python setup.py install

This will give a compile error (shown below). All this is saying is that (dword *) is undeclared in the source file src/dco2.c. It's easy to fix by just editing src/dco2.c and changing the three occurrences of (dword *) into (dvoid *), and then re-issuing the build command.

src/dco2.c:3393: error: `dword' undeclared (first use in this function)
src/dco2.c:3393: error: (Each undeclared identifier is reported only once
src/dco2.c:3393: error: for each function it appears in.)
src/dco2.c:3393: error: parse error before ')' token
src/dco2.c:3395: error: parse error before ')' token
src/dco2.c:3412: error: parse error before ')' token

Note: you need to be root for python to be able to install the database binding lubrary dco2.so into /usr/lib/python2.3/site-packages, so re-issuing the build command as root may be the most convenient way to get things set up.

To test if your newly built DCOracle2 database binding works with your Oracle 10gR1 installation, start up the database and create the scott user with the password tiger, e.g. as follows:

grant connect, resource to scott identified by tiger;
alter user scott account unlock;

Then load the example files scott.sql and procdef.sql from the DCOracle2 download "test" directory as follows:

 @Products/DCOracle2/test/scott.sql
 @Products/DCOracle2/test/procdef.sql

Now try things out in python:

python

>>> import DCOracle2
>>> db = DCOracle2.connect('scott/tiger')
>>> c = db.cursor()
>>> c.execute('select * from emp where empno=7902')
1
>>> print c.fetchall()
[[7902, 'FORD', 'ANALYST', 7566, OracleDate("1981-12-03 00:00:00"), 3000.0, None, 20]]
>>> find = c.procedure.scott.emp_actions.find
>>> print find.__doc__
function SCOTT.EMP_ACTIONS.FIND returns OUT VARCHAR2, has arguments:
        EMPID IN NUMBER
>>> print find(7902)
FORD

-- PeterKnaggs - 19 Jan 2005

  Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1.0.3) for Linux x86

Database bindings for Python

cvs -z7 -d ':pserver:anonymous@cvs.zope.org:/cvs-repository' checkout Products/DCOracle2

or if you are behind a http proxy, as follows:

cvs -z7 -d ':pserver;proxy=your-proxy.your-domain;proxyport=80:anonymous@cvs.zope.org:/cvs-repository' checkout Products/DCOracle2

  ln -s /usr/bin/basename /bin/basename

Installing Oracle 10g on Debian

I've only tried this on the x86 architecture so far, and it went quite smoothly. The first step is to create a dba group. Members of this group will have full administrative access to the oracle environment and to the database:

  /usr/sbin/groupadd -g 55 dba

  /usr/sbin/usermod -G dba username

  go_10g()
  {
    export ORACLE_HOME=/mnt/oracle/product10103/OraHome_1
    export ORACLE_SID=orcl
    export TNS_ADMIN=$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
    export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib
  }

The build of the Oracle software can be found by starting here, and clicking on the link called Oracle Database 10g Release 1 (10.1.0.3) for Linux x86 which brings up a license page, beyond which lies the download link for the file ship.db.lnx32.cpio.gz as well as a link to the installation guide. It's puzzling that the files are provided as a gzipped cpio archive. To extract them, use:

 mkdir ora_10.1.0.3.0_x86 && cd $HOME/ora_10.1.0.3.0_x86
 zcat $HOME/ship.db.lnx32.cpio.gz|cpio -idmv

mkisofs  -r -J  -o $HOME/cdimages/ora_10.1.0.3.0_x86.iso $HOME/ora_10.1.0.3.0_x86/Disk1

(cd /proc/sys/kernel; echo "178257920" > shmmax)

  mount /media/cdrom
  (cd $HOME && /media/cdrom/runInstaller -ignoreSysPrereqs)

When installing 10gR1 patchset 1 (10.1.0.3.0) on Debian, there's a problem relinking both hsodbc and extproc agents. During the install, click "Continue" to get past these problems. Later, you need to go back and relink the executables hsodbc and extproc manually. Normally, this is done by the following steps:

cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
make -f ins_rdbms.mk ihsodbc
make -f ins_rdbms.mk iextproc

cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
gcc -o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/hsodbc \
-L$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ -L$ORACLE_HOME/lib/ -L$ORACLE_HOME/lib/stubs/ \
$ORACLE_HOME/hs/lib/hsodbc.o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/defopt.o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/homts.o \
-lnavhoa -lhsnav -lhsbase -lagent10 -lnro10 -lagtsh -lpls10 -lplp10 -lclntsh -lcore10 -lxml10 \
-lunls10 -lsnls10 -lnls10 -lcore10 -lnls10 -lgeneric10 \
`cat $ORACLE_HOME/lib/sysliblist` -Wl,-rpath,$ORACLE_HOME/lib -lm \
`cat $ORACLE_HOME/lib/sysliblist` -ldl -lm -lvsn10
cp $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/hsodbc $ORACLE_HOME/bin/hsodbc

cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib
gcc -o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/extproc \
-L$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/ -L$ORACLE_HOME/lib/ -L$ORACLE_HOME/lib/stubs/ \
$ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/hormc.o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/defopt.o $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/homts.o \
-lagent10 -lnro10 -lagtsh -lpls10 -lplp10 -lclntsh -lcore10 -lxml10 -lunls10 -lsnls10 -lnls10 \
-lcore10 -lnls10 -lgeneric10 \
`cat $ORACLE_HOME/lib/sysliblist` -Wl,-rpath,$ORACLE_HOME/lib -lm \
`cat $ORACLE_HOME/lib/sysliblist` -ldl -lm -lvsn10
cp $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib/extproc $ORACLE_HOME/bin/extproc

Once the installation is complete, the installer should have created a sample database, and started up some services. Towards the end of the database installation, you will be given the opportunity to take advantage of the GUI interface to unlock a few demo accounts (scott, hr, sh, oe).

After a successful installation, the database should be up and running, and the Enterprise Manager dbconsole should also be running. If dbconsole isn't running, start it up using:

  emctl start dbconsole

  $ORACLE_HOME/`hostname -f`_$ORACLE_SID/sysman/config/emd.properties

  EMD_URL=http://localhost.localdomain:1830/emd/main

Once dbconsole has started, connect to it using the Mozilla browser at the following URL:

  http://localhost:5500/em

Pretty much all the routine database administration tasks, and many performance tuning tasks can be done via this dbconsole browser interface, without ever going back to the command line. Enjoy

-- PeterKnaggs - 05 Jan 2005