GNU/Linux Desktop Survival Guide by Graham Williams
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Notes on 11g

Here are some hints from Dani Dorbek on installing Oracle 11g on Debian/Ubuntu.

In /etc/sysctl.conf there must be 4 additional kernel parameters added in addition to those used for a 10g installation (the last 4 below):

kernel.shmall = 2097152
kernel.shmmax = 2147483648
kernel.shmmni = 4096
kernel.sem = 250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max = 6553600
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range = 1024 65000
net.core.rmem_max = 4194304
net.core.rmem_default = 4194304
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144

While installing 11g one needs to follow the 10g install guide and in addition, one needs to edit the file oracle_db_install_source/Disk1/stage/prereq/db/db_prereq.xml. There are 3 lines in that file that we must delete (or change). This is because even if RPM is installed, Oracle will try to identify the GLIBC version by executing the rpm command. It will fail, because we are using Debian and the RPM repository is empty (or not existing).

 <PREREQUISITESET NAME="customTests">
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CertifiedVersions" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Packages" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Kernel" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="GLIBC" SEVERITY="Error"/>    ----change Error
to Warning or delete this line. but be sure, that GLIBC is installed :)
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="TotalMemory" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="SwapSpace" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="OracleBase" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
    </PREREQUISITESET>

    <PREREQUISITESET NAME="asmTests">
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="DetectAnyInvalidASMHome" SEVERITY="Error"/>
    </PREREQUISITESET>

    <PREREQUISITESET NAME="genericSystemTests_hardened">
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CertifiedVersions" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Packages_hardened" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Kernel" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="GLIBC" SEVERITY="Error"/>    ----change Error
to Warning or delete this line. but be sure, that GLIBC is installed :)
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="TotalMemory" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="SwapSpace" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="DetectIfDHCPAssignedIP" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckPathForOtherOracleHomes"
SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckTempDiskSpace" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckLdLibraryPath" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
    </PREREQUISITESET>
    <PREREQUISITESET NAME="genericSystemTests">
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CertifiedVersions" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Packages" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="Kernel" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="GLIBC" SEVERITY="Error"/>    ----change Error
to Warning or delete this line. but be sure, that GLIBC is installed :)
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="TotalMemory" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="SwapSpace" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="DetectIfDHCPAssignedIP" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckPathForOtherOracleHomes"
SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckTempDiskSpace" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
        <PREREQUISITEREF NAME="CheckLdLibraryPath" SEVERITY="Warning"/>
    </PREREQUISITESET>