title: ORA-00205: error in identifying control file, check alert log for more info
body: <p>I am newly installing Oracle XE database on Ubuntu by following these steps:</p>
  
  <p>Downloaded latest rpm file for Oracle XE and ran below commands to install the database:</p>
  
  <pre><code>sudo apt-get install alien
  alien oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm
  dpkg -i oracle-xe_11.2.0-2_amd64.deb
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Then I made sure that I have permissions to /u01/ and also it is under dba group.</p>
  
  <p>Now when I am trying to start the database then I am getting issues:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ sqlplus / as sysdba
  
  SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Wed Aug 13 15:33:51 2014
  Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.
  Connected to an idle instance.
  
  SQL&gt; start
  SP2-1506: START, @ or @@ command has no arguments
  
  SQL&gt; startup
  ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters
  LRM-00109: could not open parameter file '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/dbs/initXE.ora'
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I see that I don't have the file <code>initXE.ora</code> and I have only <code>init.ora</code> as show here:</p>
  
  <pre><code>$ ls /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/dbs/
  init.ora
  </code></pre>
  
  <h3>Update:</h3>
  
  <p>I copied <code>init.ora</code> file and renamed it to <code>initXE.ora</code> file and updated the parameters in it so they point to valid directories, now when I start my database then I am getting error as:</p>
  
  <pre><code>SQL&gt; startup
  ORACLE instance started.
  
  Total System Global Area 1068937216 bytes
  Fixed Size          2233344 bytes
  Variable Size         616565760 bytes
  Database Buffers      444596224 bytes
  Redo Buffers            5541888 bytes
  ORA-00205: error in identifying control file, check alert log for more info
  </code></pre>