title: Installation of Oracle Database 11g Express Edition on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS
body: <p>I have been struggling to install Oracle 11g Express Edition on Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS version.</p>
  
  <p>I have followed these steps:</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li><p>Downloaded 11g express edition from Oracle's <a href="http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/products/express-edition/downloads/index.html">site</a></p></li>
  <li><p>Created a new user 'oracle' under the group dba. Following steps are executed using this.</p></li>
  <li><p>unzip oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm.zip and then Converted the rpm to the Ubuntu package</p>
  
  <pre><code>sudo alien --scripts -d oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm
  </code></pre></li>
  <li><p>Created <code>/sbin/chkconfig</code> file and added the entries as specified <a href="http://meandmyubuntulinux.blogspot.in/2012/05/installing-oracle-11g-r2-express.html?showComment=1357195285714#c4393074524447658792">here</a></p></li>
  <li><p>Created <code>/etc/sysctl.d/60-oracle.conf</code> and added the entries as specified in same link as above.</p></li>
  <li><p>Below steps:</p>
  
  <ul>
  <li><code>ln -s /usr/bin/awk /bin/awk</code></li>
  <li><code>mkdir /var/lock/subsys</code> </li>
  <li><code>touch /var/lock/subsys/listener</code></li>
  </ul></li>
  <li><p><code>sudo dpkg --install oracle-xe_11.2.0-2_amd64.deb</code> (.deb generated in step 3)</p></li>
  <li><p><code>sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure</code> (left the default values as it is)</p></li>
  <li><p>Set the following env variables in <code>~/.bashrc</code> file</p>
  
  <pre><code>export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe
  export ORACLE_SID=XE
  export NLS_LANG=`$ORACLE_HOME/bin/nls_lang.sh`
  export ORACLE_BASE=/u01/app/oracle
  export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
  export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
  </code></pre></li>
  <li><p>Below  steps:</p>
  
  <pre><code>chown -R oracle:dba /var/tmp/.oracle
  chmod -R 755 /var/tmp/.oracle
  chown -R oracle:dba /tmp/.oracle
  chmod -R 755 /tmp/.oracle
  </code></pre></li>
  <li><p><code>sudo service oracle-xe start</code> (I didn't see any issues in this step)</p></li>
  </ol>
  
  <p>12 . sqlplus / as sysdba and got the following</p>
  
  <blockquote>
    <p>SQL*Plus: Release 11.2.0.2.0 Production on Thu Jan 3 09:41:58 2013</p>
    
    <p>Copyright (c) 1982, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.</p>
    
    <p><strong>Connected to an idle instance.</strong></p>
  </blockquote>
  
  <p>Now when exectute any SQL statements on SQLplus, i end up with the following error</p>
  
  <pre><code>SQL&gt; select * from dual;
  select * from dual
  *
  ERROR at line 1:
  ORA-01034: ORACLE not available
  Process ID: 0
  Session ID: 0 Serial number: 0
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I have increased the swap memory as specified in <a href="http://meandmyubuntulinux.blogspot.in/2011/09/installing-1-gb-swap-without.html">here</a></p>
  
  <hr>
  
  <pre><code> free -m
  </code></pre>
  
  <hr>
  
  <pre><code>             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cached
  Mem:          1652       1596         56          0         53       1356
  -/+ buffers/cache:        186       1466
  Swap:         2943          0       2943
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>Can you guide me here? I am clueless.</p>