Oracle: force shutdown as root without knowing logins I am root on a GNU/Linux machine with Oracle 10.2.0.1.0 XE installed. I need to shut down Oracle, but I do not have admin logins to Oracle.

How do I as root force Oracle to shutdown?

I have a normal user login. When using that I get:

ORA-01089: immediate shutdown in progress - no operations are permitted


This does not change even if I run:

sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe restart


I have the feeling I need to create an administrative user from the Unix prompt, login in as this user, and run some magic command (probably one of Oracle Shutdown Method).

My guess is you probably need to fiddle with these files:

$ ls $ORACLE_HOME/dbs
hc_XE.dat  init.ora  lkXE  orapwXE  spfileXE.ora


But exactly what needs to be done?
A shutdown is already in progress. You can either


Wait
Login using su - oracle and then sqlplus / as sysdba and issue the command shutdown abort if that's what you really want.