Day: February 18, 2010

Install Oracle 10g onward database, developer on Windows 7

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 7168 Comments

General Notice:

31st October 2019 (Final note on the topic, most probably)

As Windows 10 is maturing, Oracle Developer 10g 32Bit is having regular issues, most probably due to dynamic link libraries and function calls those are NOT any more existing or compatible. As we continue using Oracle E-Business Suite R12 with 0 plans to migrate as on date, the ONLY ONE solution left for us was to move the development stack to Windows XP Virtual Machines, on which the Developer Suite works as intended.

Please note, we don’t have solution for you, if you are trying to install Oracle database 10.1.x.x on Windows 7 or Windows 8. We apologize for a bit confusing title for this particular post which says “Install 10g onwards…” which is not literally true! Our tested database version was 10.2.0.3 and we were having the impression that all 10g releases had the same architecture.

We tried around a couple of dozen times to install 10.1.0.2 database on both Windows 7 (32/64bit) and on Windows 8, and every time the results were futile and we are resigning from future attempts :)

*Update* 11.Dec.2011

*Update* 13.Nov.2012

We are limiting this workaround method for Oracle Database versions 10.2.x.x and above, as one recent lab test proved that 10.1.x.x installation on Windows 7 never completing successfully. Run under compatibility mode set as OS version 5.1 (Windows XP Professional), failed to create database during the installation process, throwing Oracle error “ORA-12546”

This error looks like the same issues we had with Database 9i setup in the lab, apparently without any solutions. So, we guess it is time to move on :)

*Update* 21.Nov.2012

Looks like we are always on to the subject :) Anyway for those who guys have access to Oracle support, there is a happy news. The frequent crash experienced by Developer 10g forms are addressed to a greater level with an upgrade to 10.1.2.3.0 (patch number 5983622)

Noticed changes

  1. Forms doesn’t crash while opening form modules which are referring views, database objects like packages, procedures and functions WHILE NOT connected to database (Provided, minimum one time the forms developer was connected to the database, until a restart). Speaking English. Start developer 10g(patched), connect to database. Close forms developer and start it again, try to open forms modules without connecting to database until the computer restarts, you shouldn’t experience crashes.
  2. Quicker start-up, and the interface is ready to serve much faster than 10.1.2.0.2
  3. Installation has an option to override required OS version with y/n prompt

PART I (Install Oracle 10g on Windows 7)

Almost after more than year time, We still receive requests asking for assistance with installing Oracle 10g database while Oracle has 11g release 2 in place. We do understand why many need Oracle 10g against the latest released database and we confirm our claim once again YOU CAN INSTALL Oracle 10g on Windows 7 (Home Basic, Home Premium, Professional etc)

Though I believe the maximum number Oracle applications are accessed through Microsoft Windows clients, when the cooperation comes in, Oracle and Microsoft behave like sisters in a fight and the end users suffer!

As a Oracle developer it is my primary requirement to have a local database running from my laptop/desktop, having the oracle development tools properly installed and once I started with Windows 7, apparently failed miserably to get the Oracle stuff installed properly on Windows 7.

It took me almost 6 or more months to come against another wordpress blog where a user has posted a fix and frankly it WORKS

Before checking the workaround check what Chris F has to say

“Thanks.  This was helpful.  I noticed when installing the 10.2.0.4 server that even after changing the refhost.xml file, I was still getting the same version check errors.  I then had to go into the “install/oraparam.ini” file and change the certified version comma-delimited list there.  After that, the installer was happier.”

here is the work around.

Example, go to this folder “E:\Installers\Oracle_10g_1023\Disk1\stage\prereq\db”

locate the file “refhost.xml”, open it with notepad

you must see something like this

<CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.0″/>
<SERVICE_PACK VALUE=”1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.1″/>
<SERVICE_PACK VALUE=”1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.2″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<!–Microsoft Windows Vista–>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”6.0″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
</CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS>

now add the following:

<!–Microsoft Windows 7–>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”6.1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>

within <CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS>   </CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS> tags, and the final entries should look like this

<CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.0″/>
<SERVICE_PACK VALUE=”1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.1″/>
<SERVICE_PACK VALUE=”1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”5.2″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<!–Microsoft Windows Vista–>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”6.0″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<!–Microsoft Windows 7–>
<OPERATING_SYSTEM>
<VERSION VALUE=”6.1″/>
</OPERATING_SYSTEM>
</CERTIFIED_SYSTEMS>

Now run the Oracle installer and you would see the installation completes without giving any errors.

PART II (Install Developer Suite 10g on Windows 7)

Step 1 Setup Virtual Memory

Depending upon actual memory available with your computer, setup virtual memory. You can go upto double the size of actual memory while setting up your virtual memory. Please refer to the image(s) below

You would be asked to restart the computer and please restart.

Step 2 Setting up the Developer Suite 10g installer

Open the Disk 1 folder and locate “Setup.exe’

Right click “Setup.exe” and change the compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 or 3

Step 3 Install Developer Suite 10g

Double click and start the installation, if you already have Sp1 installed and running latest Java runtime, you may come across PSAPI.DLL errors a number of times, caused by a function call missing information. You can safely ignore the warning messages and complete the installation.

Does it join the domain?

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 7Leave a comment

My colleague Abdul Aziz Marafi (owner of www. bateel-software.com), who has developed one of the most downloaded file and folder sync tools available free, had a problem once after he joined our local domain. The problem was simple, he could browse the network, however others cannot access his computer, cannot access shared folders etc…

The workaround was as simple as this, he removed the computer from domain, re-joined it. Bingo, it was easier than going through tons of technical manuals to find out WHY NOT!

Protect your Windows 7 with free firewall and antivirus software

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 72 Comments

The first rule is, NEVER NEVER NEVER visit websites which are known for malware and trojans. How do you identify these websites? From the IT geek’s prospects, these sites are commonly providing porn clips, cracks for software which the user want to use without paying for it.

However, knowing the dangers of visiting such sites, the users are tempted to pay visits, try so called free software periodically. Especially the people who are in IT (including myself). This article is mainly for the people who fall into this category and explains how to secure your Windows 7 installation (though not entirely) by using free firewalls and antivirus software.

AVAST, AVG etc provide decent free antivirus solutions (for home users…apparently you start using them at work as well) which are installed on Windows 7 32bit and 64bit editions without any troubles. I personally was impressed by AVAST and use the same at home where I have a dual booting system with Windows XP professional 32bit edition and Windows 7 RC 7100 64bit  (sigh, which is expiring pretty soon). The beauty is you download a single package for both operating systems and installation is pretty straight forward. Click on next next next and within few seconds the installation is over and you are protected from the nasty viruses (this is what AVAST claims)

Windows 7 has a pretty advanced firewall component compared to Windows XP professional (apparently I never tried Vista because of it’s notorious reputation). However, while going through the firewall, it made me terrified with the way it is structured and I waited until ZoneAlarm has released a Windows 7 compatible firewall.

The main issue I had with the built-in Windows 7 firewall was, it doesn’t have a front end interface which will allow the user to make decisions realtime, ie, a popup or warning window waiting for the user to decide whether to let a process or application execute or start. I was using ZoneAlarm firewall from quite a long time, possibly from those days when I started chatting over IRC and the Windows 98 exploits allowed “kids” to kick you out of the network by ping or flood, port scanning attacks.

So basically having a free firewall and free antivirus solution provides you hasslefree protection, unless deliberately intented by you. Free or paid, a firewall like ZoneAlarm is not for a person who doesn’t understand the complexity of  what a particular application does and if not configured properly, would cause troubles than enhancements.

A fine combination of ZoneAlarm free firewall+Avast free home edition should a normal computer user moderate level protection from present day threats. (I prefer the free editions because they are less heavy because of the stripped off features and let my system repond faster compared to full and paid editions)

Configure WatchGuard VPN client over Windows7 64bit

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 72 Comments

We have a WatchGuard Firebox and when we are away from offices, we do use VPN connections through this device. However, when I ended up with Windows7 RC 7100 64bit edition, unfortunately few things didn’t work at the first place. Few I could recollect were Yahoo messenger, WatchGuard TAP driver etc.

I spent few hours over google and found some interesting topics about configuring the TAP driver over Vista 64bit. Though it was too early for Windows7 related posts, just combining bits from here and there and using the logics at needed places gave me a permanent solution for configuring the WatchGuard VPN client with my Windows7 64bit evaluation copy.

Workarounds are as following:

Download “openvpn-2.1_rc18-install.exe” from here

  1. Start the installer, and select only the TAP driver to be installed (Remember the WatchGuard VPN client software is 32bit application)
  2. Once the installation is over run “WG-MVPN-SSL.exe” which you can download from the device, as administrator. When the installation starts, uncheck TAP driver and let the installation finish normally.
  3. Once the installation is over, right-click on the new VPN client shortcut and change the properties to run with administrator privileges.

This should let you connect to your WatchGuard box without any troubles!

Windows7 network connections

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 7Leave a comment

Can you see the small yellow triangle? Okay, let me make it even simple, try to concentrate, there is a red round, inside that you can see something which looks like a little devil holding his fork and a traffic signal like NO ENTRY (kidding)…

We are on a Windows 2008 R1 AD domain and running ISA 2006 SP1 as proxy. Once after all four of us “migrated” to Windows7, noticed that though we are able to connect to internet, browse, download, this connection periodically shows there is no access to internet and additional log on information required messages. May be it must be a small time “BUG”. However this causes major problems like:

Antivirus software cannot go online and download updates, unless you specify the proxy, username and password for the authentication with ISA

Multiple software, which are designed to share internet connection settings with IE (without a preference area to configure the proxy settings) fail miserably from connecting to internet (Nokia MAP loader, updater, Ovi suit, Avast free home edition…just to take few names)

Let us hope Microsoft identifies this problem and comes up with a SERVICE PACK soon!

Minor update: I am not sure whether this trick works always, when you are annoyed with the yellow triangle, remove your LAN connection cable, and plug it back and the watch the yellow triangle disappearing for a while…or until you restart the PC next time.

Our scenario, Windows 2008 R1 AD domain with ISA 2006 SP1 and we believe this yellow triangle and the error message asking for additional log on information has something to do with the authentication between the Windows 7 client and the ISA server…

The first bug?”Multiple instances of Microsoft Outlook” Windows 7

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 7Leave a comment

Have Windows7  and MS office suit installed? Are you using Microsoft Outlook 2007 standard/professional edition? Okay, let us start a fresh session of Microsoft Outlook. Leave it alone and double click open Microsoft Outlook again and again and again…how many Microsoft Outlook sessions are available for you? a dozen?

Microsoft Outlook Multiple Instances

This “bug” was reported to me by my colleague Sherin and I had given the same a try and end up with multiple instances of MS outlook running from my station. Would MS gonna claim this as an enhancement? Let us wait and see!

Last minute thought: Once started using multiple instances of Outlook, I should say, I felt pretty better as I could move around multiple nodes of my mail box (inbox, sent items) without closing the other one…so instead of calling it as bug, I should mark it as an enhancement :P

Windows 7 RC 7100 expires soon

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 7Leave a comment

Are you using Windows 7 RC 7100 evaluation? be informed, this evaluation would expire within a short time. I received a notification around 12 hours back that my copy would expire within 7 days and CLEARLY asked me to take a backup of the stuff I have with this instance!

So be ready, if you were ‘enjoying’ the free copy of Windows7 evaluation, RC 7100 you should hurry up to make backups and plan for a clean installation. There are numerous work arounds posted over internet about an upgrade from RC to a full version of Microsoft Windows 7 ultimate edition (ie, you cannot upgrade your copy of free ultimate evaluation copy to Windows 7 professional, enterprise or home premium editions)

If you are curious to know how it works, please follow this link

Hello world!

On By windows7bugsIn Uncategorized, Windows 7Leave a comment

We are a group of IT guys, who were asked to install and test Windows 7, the latest Microsoft client OS prior mass deployment over our network. Though our intentions are not to judge Windows 7, we may regularly post the issues and workarounds we faced/deployed to deal with this relatively new operating system. You are invited to post your concerns, tips and tricks to enhance the experiences with Windows 7