Tag: windows 11

Installing Oracle Forms & Reports 14.1.2 on Windows

On By windows7bugsIn NOT a DBA, Oracle Forms, WeblogicLeave a comment 
Last updated on 7th January 2026

The most awkward thing about the entire exercise is, we don't use Weblogic with a combination of Forms & Reports 12c/14c at work. The only Weblogic instance that we use is tied to Oracle EBS R12 & that's an ancient version.

Today I am expanding the article with initial setup (only for lab purposes), instructions for publishing a sample application & few issues related to reports. I lost the Windows 11 VM on which I had the  Weblogic installation on C:\ Drive. On the new VM I installed the stack on my default path "D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home". I hope the instructions that refer this path will not confuse you.

If you did refer my previous post(s) for Oracle Forms & Reports 12c installation, this note is not going to be much different other than for few more options one must choose in order to install the stack!

  • Your Windows Box, let it be desktop or server OS, patched to the latest.
  • Static IP address, proper hostname.
  • Minimum 8GB memory available for database + Middleware processes. More is merrier!
  • Always use old command prompt (cmd.exe) for installing, setting up and start weblogic services. You are warned!

We will be installing Oracle Fusion Middleware 14.1.2/Weblogic Server using Oracle JDK version 21, that is the highest version supported as on date. You should download Fusion Middleware Infrastructure Installer, or Weblogic Installer from Oracle e-delivery portal for Windows. Please do the same for Oracle Forms & Reports also.

This time I installed the entire stack including a fresh 19c database instance on a fresh Windows 11 23H2 VM, to make sure no other Oracle products installed were interfering with the setup. Please refer this document ensure you have all the prerequisites met for the installation. To make is easier, if your Windows box is up to date, then you need to install Visual C++ run-time as mentioned in the document. Please note, these instructions are only valid for the current version of Weblogic/Fusion Middleware installation. You must refer updated documents for newer versions.

Once JDK 21 installed, make sure that you will adjust the PATH with JDK 21 being the first entry.

Let us start by Installing Weblogic/Fusion Middleware. Open an elevated command prompt and switch to the path where you have JDK installed. I usually always install JAVA software on C:\Java path. If you are on Windows 10 or Windows 11 use copy as path feature to get the filename along with complete path and proceed with the command. Please modify to suite your setup. Example

java -jar "D:\Oracle_Installers\Fusion_MiddleWare14\V1045135-01\fmw_14.1.2.0.0_infrastructure.jar"

This could take a while based on the hardware resources available and soon you will be presented with the usual Oracle welcome screen. As this installation is “eventless”, I will not have much to explain further for the Weblogic installation. My new VM had only one partition C:, hence I installed Oracle database in C:\oracle folder and chose the same path for rest of the software as well.

That’s all folks. As I mentioned earlier, installation of Weblogic 14.1.2 on a fully patched Windows OS is eventless. We will proceed with Oracle Forms and Reports 14.1.2 installation now. This is another installation that is as eventless as the previous one :)

Right click the installer and start as Administrator is the only geeky instruction for this installer.

You must make sure that forms & reports are getting installed on the same home where we have already installed Weblogic server. So when the installer prompts for the Oracle Home, pick the one from the dropdown list.

Oracle offers the developers to install the Forms developer as a standalone product, that will not serve our current purpose. Hence, select Forms and Reports Deployment.

Select the default JDK

That completes the Oracle Forms and Reports Installation.

Special note. Unless registered as service and database, many connections to the PDB will fail during and post setup, especially while Weblogic Admin Server startup. Make sure to add the listener port exception in the defender firewall for incoming connections also. I have added the PDB as a service and registered the same as Database with Listener prior setting up the REPO for the classic domain.

Now we will proceed with setting up Repository for our classic domain. I mentioned in the beginning of the article that I installed a fresh instance of Oracle database 19c for this purpose and during the installation I have created one PDB that will hold the repo data for our classic domain. Switch to the path where you have installed Weblogic server from an elevated command prompt. For example, C:\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_home. Now switch to oracle_common\bin and execute “rcu.bat” script file.

Choose the defaults, that is create repository with the option system load and product load.

If there are no connection issues, you should see the below screen immediately.

Select all components as seen with the below image.

Use the same password for all schemas.

You may define a new tablespace for this purpose using the Manage Tablespace button.

This is another eventless setup, unless the PDB connections become a trouble. Now, we can go ahead and configure a classic domain, using which we will setup both FORMS & REPORTS instances for applications.

From the same path, execute the script file “config.cmd”

Whatever mistakes you make during this phase will force you to create new repo, go through these steps once again. So, make sure you will cross check all details prior proceeding to next steps. Considering you are creating a new classic domain, leave the suggestions as it is.

The above and next two images list the items that you are going to setup for the Classic domain.

We will not be setting up SSL, hence make the selections as seen with the image. I am not sure about the technical difficulties that one might face by enabling SSL at this point of time. You may safely ignore the warnings.

Now we have to supply the repository details that we have created previously.

We will leave the SSL unchecked and make sure to select “WSMPM-MAN-SVR” for the Server Groups. Without this setting, the classic domain will fail to serve the purpose.

You can switch Node Manager Type from “SSL” to “Plain”, for me leaving it to defaults didn’t make any difference.

Change the Node Manager type to Plain

Click on the righthand side “AdminServerMachine” and the button to add “AdminServer” available in the left pan will get enabled. Add “AdminServer” to the “Machines” group.

Now, we have only one system component that is Forms. We will add another component, Oracle HTTP Server or OHS.

Leave the defaults.

(Added on 7th January 2026, Oracle demands you not to use “localhost” for listen Address incase if you are planning others to connect. Instead you should use the hostname or static IP address. If you missed this instruction during installation, use the enterprise manager console to change the listen address to “any” while the OHS instance is shutdown)

Now move the system component ohs1 to the Machines group as explained above for “AdminServer”

This completes the classic domain setup. Oracle has retired the good old browser based Weblogic Admin Server console and introduced a new tool called Weblogic remote control, that you can download from github About WebLogic Remote Console :: WebLogic Remote Console

It’s a pain until you get used to it.

Now we will see how to start the nodemanager and weblogic admin server.

Switch to 

C:\oracle\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin

from an elevated command prompt. Start the nodemanger now by issuing the command by executing the command “startnodemanger.cmd”

It may take few seconds to minutes until the node manager starts for the first time. Please remember, you shouldn’t close this command window, which will automatically stop the node manager.

I didn’t experience “Schema validation failure” JAVA error while starting the Weblogic admin server once after the PDB services were added. If JAVA throws “Schema validation failure” errors while starting the admin server, try the below workaround. Regardless, until you finish the initial setups, it is advisable to use the below hack to start the Weblogic Server.

set JAVA_OPTIONS=-Dweblogic.configuration.schemaValidationEnabled=false
startWeblogic.cmd

Okay, with node manager, 99.9% chances that you may not bite bullet. With Weblogic Admin server, this is not the case. For number reasons, the Server will try to start and give up in the middle. So don’t panic. If the Weblogic Admin Server is not coming up to a “RUNNING” status after extended period of waiting, go ahead and restart your computer. Start node manager and then try to start the weblogic admin server once again.

The initial startup could take up to 5-6 minutes (depending upon your hardware, this time could vary) & you should see a status like below. “Server state changed to RUNNING” means set and you are good for next step.

Remember not to close the command prompt window, which will immediately stop the Weblogic Admin Server. The status of the window will keep on updated against the activities happening at the server side. Once started, you can safely keep both node manager and Weblogic Admin Server CMD windows minimized.

As I said above, we cannot access the Weblogic Admin Server using browsers anymore and the Weblogic Remote Console is mandatory for the same. I have made a short video explaining how to start services using the console & leaving the rest on you to explore and learn how to make changes to existing parameters for rest of the setup that are required for publishing your applications 😍

Start both WLS_FORMS & WLS_REPORTS servers using the Weblogic Remote Console or using “startManagedWeblogic.cmd”. Once these servers started, let’s update the OHS instance that we created during the classic domain setup.

From an elevated command prompt, switch to Oracle_Common\common\bin folder

Eg: D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\oracle_common\common\bin

Now, start Weblogic Scripting tool (wlst.cmd), refer the below image for details. Use your weblogic admin server credentials when prompted.

Issue the command “ohs_updateInstances()” at the wlst prompt & once the configuration completed, exit wlst by issuing “exit()”

Using Enterprise Manager (http://localhost:7001/em) try to start the Oracle HTTP Server. My OHS instance is named “ohs_1” with the given image.

Under normal conditions Oracle HTTP Server should start without issues.

Now shutdown HTTP and WLS_FORMS & WLS_REPORTS servers using Enterprise manager and Weblogic Remote Console respectively. You can use stopManagedWeblogic.cmd to shutdown both WLS_FORMS & WLS_REPORTS servers alternatively.

As we didn’t configure “Node Manager” during the classic domain creation, let us quickly modify few parameters, that will help us to re-configure OHS instance properly at later stages.

Using Weblogic Remote Console, choose “Edit Tree” Tree element

Once the Tree opens, click on Expand “Environment”, then “Domain”, then “Security” and check “Show Advanced Fields” (Refer image). Enter a meaningful name for the Node Manager username and use the common password as password for the node manager user. Please remember, resetting the node manager password may not be a great experience at all ;)

Click on “Save” button. This action will add the changes to the cart button and you have open the cart button to apply the changes, which replaces the old lock and edit apply changes.

Shutdown the Weblogic Admin Server and Node Manager & restart both. Start both WLS_FORMS and WLS_REPORTS servers. We’ll restart the OHS instance later.

Now we will edit few configuration files for both Forms and Reports so that OHS will know where to look for their details.

Edit forms.conf file in the folder 

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\forms\templates\config\

By default this template file comes with commented examples, like following

#<Location /forms/>
#        SetHandler weblogic-handler
#        WebLogicHost host
#        WeblogicPort port
#</Location>

You need to uncomment one of the blocks starting from until & add properties specific to your deployment, for example, my computer’s name is “RT05: and I am using default ports for both forms and reports applications, hence I have the properties set like following

<Location /forms/>
SetHandler weblogic-handler
WebLogicHost RT05
WebLogicPort 9001
</Location>

Once altered, copy forms.conf to OHS instance “moduleconf” folder. I have copied the file to following location: (Alter according to your setup)

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs1\moduleconf

Now we will edit the configuration file for reports. Please note, with Reports 14c, the default listening port has been changed from 9002 to 9012.

Switch to “D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\reports\conf” folder & edit “reports_ohs.conf” and add a block like following (alter according to your setup)

<Location /reports/>
SetHandler weblogic-handler
WebLogicHost RT05
WebLogicPort 9012
</Location>

Copy the edited file to 

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs1\moduleconf

Alternatively you can add the entries directly into “mod_wl_ohs.conf” file found in the path. This will be easier incase if you are planning to deploy web applications & use the same OHS instance to access them. For details, check the attached image.

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\OHS\instances\ohs_1\

Restart the OHS instance storing all the changes we made until now. Instead of using the Enterprise Manager, we will use the startComponent.cmd this time. Move to the domain base bin path. Example:

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin

Now, execute the command

StartComponent.cmd ohs_1 storeUserConfig

This will start the Weblogic Scripting tool & will prompt for node manager password.

Once a correct password is provided, the OHS instance (ohs_1) will be started & you are all ready to deploy your Forms/Reports based application(s). Please note, 12c was the latest supported version of Oracle Reports & provided with 14c only for backward compatibilities. You are advised to switch to “supported” Oracle BI alternatives.

Next step, we will modify more configuration files for deploying sample application. Please note, Oracle Weblogic is very sensitive around IPv6 protocol, especially the Reports Server. Hoping you already set a static IP address for your box, let’s add an entry to the hosts file first. On Windows you will find the “hosts” file on the path “C:\Windows\System32\drivers\etc”. Make sure to open Notepad as Administrator.

We’ll setup the TNS names for the Forms/Reports next. Copy the tnsnames.ora file from your database installation path and replace the one at the physical location. Usually at 

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig

Make sure that you will make a backup prior replacing the existing one.

I’ve noticed that recent installations of Oracle products set up the sqlnet.ora with NTS authentication as default. This could create issues when you try to connect Forms/Reports developers to database as well as while trying to launch applications.

Please modify the sqlnet.ora file at this physical path

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\network\admin

Now we will modify one of the environment files that should save us many troubles related to Report Server not being able to connect.

Switch to the path 

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin

and edit the setDomainEnv.cmd after making backups. Modify the JAVA_OPTIONS

set "JAVA_OPTIONS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -Dweblogic.ssl.AcceptKSSDemoCertsEnabled=true"

To

set "JAVA_OPTIONS=%JAVA_OPTIONS% -Dweblogic.ssl.AcceptKSSDemoCertsEnabled=true -Dweblogic.ssl.AcceptKSSDemoCertsEnabled=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Stack=true -Djava.net.preferIPv4Addresses=true"

Save the file. This modification will help you to address few of the grave issues with Reports Server, that expects IPv4 instead of IPv6 protocol for network related negotiations.

  • REP-52266: The in-process Reports Server rep_wls_reports_rt05 failed to start.oracle.reports.RWException: IDL:oracle/reports/RWException:1.0
  • Multicast:init java.io.IOException: Network interface not configured for IPv4

Let us proceed to modify rest of the configuration files now. We will start with Reports configurations first, then Forms .

I believe, came across an Oracle forum post where the Product Manager Michael comments about using named Report Servers not supported on 14c. I am not sure, you have to find this out yourselves. I will be configuring the in-process Report server in next few steps.

All the Report Server configuration files are available on the same file path. Switch to the physical path

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\servers\WLS_REPORTS\applications\reports_14.1.2\configuration

We will be modifying the 3 files listed below. Make sure to backup the files before you start modifying them.

  • rwservlet.properties – Servlet specific properties
  • rwserver.conf – Server properties
  • cgicmd.dat – key mapping file

1. As far you are using in-process reports server, nothing much to alter with “rwservlet.properties” file. Basically you should see entries like following in the opened file:

image


2. rwserver.conf (Please check the below image)

image

3. cgicmd.dat: Many values we supply to call a report using Web.Show_Document method could potentially expose vital information like the database details & many other. “cgicmd.dat” file helps us to map such values to keys and later use them wherever applicable. With this example, I will demonstrate, how the database username, password and service name are mapped using a key. Please check the image attached below

image

Once these configurations files are altered, we need to create a report instance for the WLS_REPORT server. Open an elevated command prompt and switch to 

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\oracle_common\common\bin

Start wlst & connect to the server.

Issue the command

createReportsToolsInstance(instanceName='rptools1', machine='AdminServerMachine')

Note, you can choose your own name for the report instance. We will use this tools instance with Forms for accessing report server. Once the report instance created, exit wlst and you can try to start the WLS_REPORT server from the weblogic console.

Switch to the physical path now.

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\servers\WLS_FORMS\applications\formsapp_14.1.2\config

We will be modifying the files listed below. Make sure you make backup copies for the files prior modifying them.

  • formsweb.cfg
  • default.env

One of the major changes that happened between the version is, Internet Explorer is not anymore and the JAVA NAPI clients are not supported by modern browsers. This leaves the Forms enthusiastics with two options, Java Web Start and FSAL. Both have their own set of issues, that you must address when applied on PRODUCTION environments. Let us create a new section by the dead end of the formsweb.cfg file. Notice the REPORT_SERVLET entry, that is mandatory when you are using CREATE_REPORT_OBJECT calls from Forms.

# Application name "Balaji"
[myapp]
# The name of the starting form (ensure start.fmx is in your FORMS_PATH)
form=start.fmx
# Enable Java Web Start
webstart=enabled
# Template for the JNLP file (standard for non-WebUtil apps)
basejnlp=base.jnlp
# Optional: Set the width and height of the application window
width=1024
height=768
# Connection string (example: user/password@database)
userid=
# Specific environment file for this app (default.env or a custom one)
envFile=default.env
# Report Servlet path
REPORT_SERVLET=/reports/rwservlet

Save the file and let us modify the default.env that could be found in the same file path. You can tell the forms runtime to look in this file to locate the forms runtimes. For example, I’ve all the compiled runtimes available at D:\12c folder for the application that I am trying to deploy/publish. The FORMS_PATH is pointed to it & other paths wherever I have applications (eg: mapped path \\RT04\OPMAN12C\main). Make sure each path is separated using a “;”

FORMS_PATH=D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\forms;D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\FORMS\instances\forms1;D:\12c;\\RT04\OPMAN12C\main;\\RT04\OPMAN12C\OPMAN

Another mandatory entry you are going to make within the default.env is for the Reports Tools instance that you created earlier. Without specified, your reports may not work at all.

COMPONENT_CONFIG_PATH=D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\components\ReportsToolsComponent\rptools1

COMPONENT_CONFIG_PATH value is the physical path for the Report Server tools instance we created earlier. Save the default.env file and we’ll make changes to registry.dat file, that enhances the look and feels of few Forms objects live LOV and Required Fields. Switch to the path

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\config\fmwconfig\servers\WLS_FORMS\applications\formsapp_14.1.2\config\oracle\forms\registry

Make a backup for registry.dat file and modify the existing entries like given below.

#
# Application level settings to control UI features
#
# app.ui.lovButtons=false
app.ui.lovButtons=true
# app.ui.requiredFieldVA=false
app.ui.requiredFieldVA=true
#    The background color is specified as an RGB triple.
# app.ui.requiredFieldVABGColor=255,0,0
app.ui.requiredFieldVABGColor=255,242,203

This completes the configurations for Forms.

As everything for a lab environment is set, let us quickly restart all services and servers to make sure that all are in place.

Shutdown all running servers and services. Follow the below sequence for shutting down the servers.

  • WLS SERVERS
  • HTTP Server
  • Weblogic Admin Server
  • Node Manager

We are restarting to services and servers to ensure that the changes made to environment files are activated. Start the services and servers sequentially

  • Node Manager
  • Weblogic Admin Server
  • WLS Servers (FORMS, REPORTS)
  • HTTP Server

Try to access your sample application from the address http://<hostname&gt;:7777/forms/frmservlet?config=<config name>

Ensure that you have JRE 32-Bit (preferred) aleady installed. As my sample page doesn’t have an associated web application, as soon as I press Enter key after entering the URL, the browser will download a jnlp file (Java Web Start)

If you never worked with jnlp files, there will be few security warnings. Ignore them and you can keep and open the file in subsequent actions. Once opened, these files are useless, hence always open them if your browser permit. Firefox ESR versions are best for such situations. You might get some security warnings once again while opening the jnlp file, accept all to proceed.

So here we are

Let’s run a report using “Web.Show_Document” method, when the geeks are asking you to start using “RUN_REPORT_OBJECT” instead for better integration and security.

For the sample scenarios, I chose to stick to Web.Show_Document that supports parameter form.

Here is our report (PDF)

End notes:

I am a developer & the hacks and patches that I apply to get something working may not be copied to PRODUCTION environments. Please, don’t ask me for the “sample application” source code. If you are interested about the “Tree Menu”, I already shared the details with my “OOooOOtoob” channel. Hooking up the video for your references here.

I will recommend you to refer my 12c posts for setting up Forms & Reports environments for publishing applications. This could help you to figure out stuffs that I might have missed with the 14c document.

For FSAL setups. If you don’t have jacob.jar and associated dll files that are expected to be made available by “YOU”, an error like the below will arise.

D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\user_projects\domains\base_domain\bin>C:\Java\jdk-21\bin\java.exe -jar "D:\Weblogic\Middleware\Oracle_Home\forms\java\frmsal.jar" -url "http://rt05:7777/forms/frmservlet?config=balaji_fsal"

Detected Java version: 21.0.8
Inspecting archive files in cache directory C:\Users\rajesh\AppData\Local\Temp\frmsal\rt05\14.1.2.0
Using cached archive file frmall.jar from cache subdirectory bkl1e4mo31jhef1bgia0decvk
Using cached archive file frmwebutil.jar from cache subdirectory bkl1e4mo31jhef1bgia0decvk
Downloading archive file jacob.jar to cache subdirectory bkl1e4mo31jhef1bgia0decvk
FRM-92290: HTTP response code 404 received when attempting to download archive file
FRM-92491: Unable to fetch archive file from server.

Download the latest release from https://github.com/freemansoft/jacob-project/releases & extract the files to “….\Middleware\Oracle_Home\forms\java” path. Make sure you copied jacob.jar and associated dll files to this path. Shutdown WLS_FORMS server & restart it.

Sample FSAL configuration as given below

[balaji_fsal]
form=login.fmx
# Note: baseSAAfile must end with .txt
WebUtilArchive=frmwebutil.jar,jacob.jar
WebUtilLogging=off
WebUtilLoggingDetail=normal
WebUtilErrorMode=Alert
WebUtilDispatchMonitorInterval=5
WebUtilTrustInternal=true
WebUtilMaxTransferSize=24573
baseSAAfile=webutilsaa.txt
fsalcheck=true
userid=<<scott/tiger@orcl>>

Refer https://pitss.org/us/2020/08/13/how-to-run-oracle-forms-using-forms-standalone-launcher/ for more details about FSAL

Windows 11 #24H2

On By windows7bugsIn Windows, Windows 11Leave a comment

I’ve been a Windows insider from the very beginning. However, my insider experiments were always limited to a virtual machine as release previews previously broke my fine tuned environments. This time I couldn’t get the Windows 11 VM upgraded due to some unknown issues preventing VirtualBox getting stuck at boot after the update installed. So, I decided to upgrade my development machine. One of the funniest situations I came across was the upgrade not being offered after setting up “insider program”

Let us check how to get the update step by step this time.

You must share diagnostic data with Microsoft for the insider program to work properly.

Once set, you can go to Windows update and enroll for insider program. Setting up the insider account could get stuck, just wait for few minutes and try again. It should be fixed. As I was only interested about #24H2, I’ve opted for unenrollment when the update is generally available for everyone.

Well, setting up and restarting and checking for new updates may not show you the #24H2 update yet, you need to enable one more setting. You need to turn on “Get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” option. Do another round of check for updates and #24H2 will be definitely offered to you. Happy upgrading.

If you are a seasoned Windows OS user, every update opens room for more bugs & release previews WILL not be anything different. If you don’t have the luxury to reset if required, wait for the final version of the update is available. That could save you some frustrations.

Installing Gaming Services failed with error: 0x80310000

On By windows7bugsIn PowerShell, Windows 10, Windows 11Leave a comment

(The above image was doctored to show the error)

If you ever receive this error on #Windows 11, it means the XBox gaming services are toasted and you need to reinstall them. Usually after a fresh installation of Windows10/11, I always removed the bundled apps using PowerShell & later installed only the software that I need. I did install XBox and associated last time, as I constantly use XBox gaming bar screen recording. Looks like the Gaming Services were not fixed by re-installing XBox and components.

I landed on a working solution that is Microsoft answers thread. The working solution is copied below.

  1. Open Terminal as Administrator & enter the below commands one after another
  2. get-appxpackage Microsoft.GamingServices | remove-AppxPackage -allusers
  3. start ms-windows-store://pdp/?productid=9MWPM2CQNLHN

The second command “start…” will open a fresh instance of Microsoft Store app and you can install the gaming services. Restart the box and you are all set to go.

Hope this helps few out there.

Windows Mobile hotspot | Connected without internet

On By windows7bugsIn Networking, Windows, Windows 11Leave a comment

Update: 7th December 2022

Today I managed to narrow down the issues to Intel driver specific. AX201 Wi-Fi module driver 22.160 and above breaks the mobile hotspot on both Windows 10 & Windows 11. The only possible solution is to rollback to driver version 22.150.x.x & stay there until Intel identifies and fixes this issue. I have opened a thread with Intel and the representative is investigating this issue. If you are interested, follow the thread here

We’ve poor cellular coverage by the datacenter area from the service provider & most of the times I use my work laptop as Mobile hotspot & it did work. Well, minimum until recent days.

I started seeing my mobile phone showing “Connected without internet” once in few minutes times & I had to reconnect which was a recent development. Unfortunately, I couldn’t land upon any relevant solutions after spending almost two working days searching for solutions & executing my own logic with resetting network/Winsock etcetera.

As I use Samsung Galaxy A71 5G Android phone, I thought of giving another attempt by searching for “Galaxy a71 5g connected without internet” & one of the first search results was:

Samsung Galaxy Phones “Connected without Internet”

Here, the vlogger talks about “Randomized MAC” Galaxy phones use when connecting to Wi-Fi networks. Although the vlogger suggests Static IP address & other changes to resolve this issue, I only changed the connection property from “Random MAC” to “Phone MAC” & days long frustrations were over.

I wanted to figure out why all of a sudden this issue started. I remember using the Mobile Hotspot without any issues, had a PowerShell script to start the mobile hotspot startup automatically whenever I am connected to work network for months & couldn’t just give up because I found a solution. Hence, I continued to find more answers.

There were more videos discussing the same issue about Samsung Galaxy phones & subsequently I landed on a Samsung community discussion here

My mobile is paired over Bluetooth to my laptop & it connects every time laptop restarts. One of the initial settings I checked was to ensure Mobile Hotspot was not setup for 2.4GHz, that causes issues for Bluetooth which uses 2.4GHz by default.

In my case, at work I am not connected to Wi-Fi networks & mobile hotspot is configured to share internet from my domain network connection. By default, as the 5GHz is not consumed by Wi-Fi connections, mobile hotspot utilizes that frequency and leaves a notification, asking to switch the frequency if devices fail to connect.

Hence, it could be one of the many elements as discussed in the Samsung community thread. All you need is to try and find out one that suits your situation. Regardless, if it is a Samsung Galaxy phone, the first solution you could try is to setup Phone MAC instead of Randomized MAC for the specific Wi-Fi connection that you have issues with. If that didn’t resolve, try others.

Install Oracle Developer 10G on Windows 11

On By windows7bugsIn Windows, Windows 10, Windows 112 Comments

Today I re-installed Windows 11 on my computer. Actually I had upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11 on October 5th, 2021 the same day Microsoft released the half baked OS to public & all of a sudden I realized that, it was a blunder. So, after regretting over a month, I decided to re-install the OS and started installing all my development tools & you know what, I had to refer my Windows 7 post for installing Oracle Developer Suite 10g on my Windows 11!

Much of the post below is from the earliest post that I had for Windows 7, explaining hacks to install Oracle Database 10g and the Suite. Oracle Database 10g is not anymore significant, hence I removed the database part and posting the rest for few unfortunate Oracle developers out there. Well, 10g is used by many business application as on date & if you are looking for a method to install Oracle Database 10g on Windows 11, Please search the blog for Database 10g and you will land on multiple posts explaining to how (Refer Windows 10 articles)

Step 1 Setup Virtual Memory

If your computer has 8GB or more physical memory, all you need is to setup the Virtual Memory for the name sake. Limit the virtual memory to 2048 (2G) or max 4096 (4G). Please use the below images only for reference purposes. After changing the Virtual Memory, You will be asked to restart the computer and please restart.

Once the installation id done, please reverse the virtual memory settings to default, ie, “Automatically manage paging file size for all drives”. I’ve run into issues due to rigid virtual memory sizing couple of times & the Oracle document makes the recommendation for the same.

Step 2 Setting up the Developer Suite

Depending upon the media that you are using for the installation, Oracle Developer 10g has 2 discs & I have copied the content from both disks inside a folder on my computer. (As you could see in the image above)

Open the Disk 1 folder and locate “Setup.exe’, right click and change the compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 or 3 (doesn’t make any difference)

That’s all. Right click and run “setup.exe” as Administrator. If you have a JAVA installation already on the computer, you might receive a warning message for missing entry point, that you can safely ignore.

Follow the same compatibility setting for patch sets, if you have any. Let me know about your experience through comments.

Install Oracle 21c database on Windows

On By windows7bugsIn Oracle related, WindowsLeave a comment

If you have already installed Oracle 19c following instructions available here, installing Oracle database 21c is not much different. Basically 21c is “Innovation Release” & 19c is going to be the long supported version as on date. It plainly means, there is no need to hurry to upgrade your 19c to 21c as next release will be the next long supported version.

Let us see how to install Oracle 21c on Windows (Installed on Windows 10 21H1) & the instructions are same for Windows 11 also.

You can download the 21c Windows installation media from Oracle Database 21c Download for Microsoft Windows x64

Extract the .zip and change the root folder to something like “Oracle12c” (or a name that prefer. Please avoid using spaces with the folder name, example: “Oracle 21c”)

I used a virtual machine with single drive, hence the zip file was extracted and I renamed the extracted folder root to “Oracle21c”

Once the folder is renamed to your choice, open the folder and execute the “setup.exe” as administrator. Please note, you must start the setup as administrator, regardless whether your Windows user account has administrator privileges on the system.

This will kick start the installation process and depending upon the resources available it could take minutes before the installation GUI appears for you.

Choose “Server class” regardless whether you are installing it on a Server OS or client OS. It’s all about managing the resources.

Now, this is a very interesting perspective. “The software directory is the Oracle Database home directory” & the path that you will mention in the edit box is going to be the Oracle base. I hope, now you understood why renaming the media extracted folder to a very meaningful name is important. As usual Oracle suggests you the defaults, however I recommend you to follow a pattern that you can feel comfortable with.

As you could see, the default installation sets up one pdb. You may rename the default PDB at this level.

Here I left everything to defaults as my intentions were pretty limited to installation. Unless you have a reason to set up Automatic Memory management, go ahead with the well trusted manual management, that gives you granular level control on how the memory is utilized by the database.

You can change the database character set to another from the “Choose from the following list of character sets” (Specifically for Arabic and other left to right languages)

You may choose a different location for the database data files. Just make sure that the current user has full access to the path.

Use the same password for a TEST installation & follow the Oracle recommendations for PRODUCTION environments. Please note, it’s better to use the complex passwords with expiry disabled for the default profile.

That’s all folks. It’s not like the earlier times when one had to hack the installation files to install Oracle database on newer Windows OS. Starting from 11g, Oracle database gets installed on Windows 7 and later OS without complaining as long as the OS is fully patched with updates and .NET components.

Hope this post helps few newbies (& me)

Windows 11 | Dial a VPN Connection using PowerShell script

On By windows7bugsIn Windows, Windows 111 Comment

I started blogging once after upgrading to Windows 7 & posted mostly about the ridiculous bugs Microsoft exported with that OS. Gradually Windows 7 got matured (hardly ever fixing the yellow triangle network icon issue) & my entire attention switched to what I do for salaries, Oracle development & later much of my posts were about the stack.

Now Microsoft has released another half cooked OS, Windows 11. From a layman perspectives I cannot understand how someone could make such decisions that affect the established stability and ease of use of an OS that creates huge disappointments for general userbase!

Other than cosmetic changes and revamped settings area, I cannot defer Windows 11 from Windows 10, plus the disappointment of losing the start menu that I was getting used to after loads of patience and efforts. Among many of such grievances, connecting to VPN that is defined using Windows new connection wizard at work is so ridiculous, requiring 4 mouse clicks! So I decided to go with a cmd/powershell script this time to avoid those 4 mouse clicks. If you are using Cisco or other VPN solutions, this will not apply to you.

After weighing the possibilities of extending , I decided to go with PowerShell (Version 5)

So let us check how it works. Copy the following in to a text file

rasdial.exe "Your VPN Name"

Save the file as “Dial VPN.ps1” or any other name you prefer with extension “.ps1”.

Make sure you wrap the VPN name using double quotes. “rasdial.exe” is not a powershell cmdlet, an old Windows OS friendly dialer. This executable is generally found in the Windows\System32 folder and there is no need to specify the path, unless you modified the PATH environment variable. Now create a new shortcut on the desktop and type/copy the following (Please adjust the file path as per your setup) as command for the shortcut

powershell.exe -File "C:\scripts\Dial-VPN.ps1"

Please note, you must configure the Powershell execution police “RemoteSigned” inorder to make this work. Example:

PS C:\Users\<username>> Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned

Usually I keep all my scripts in a folder named “Scripts” on the C: drive. Hence the -File parameter clearly mentions the script’s path.

That’s all, you can double click and open the pre-configured VPN connection without going through the 4 click hassles on Windows 11 (or multiple clicks on other Windows OS versions)

Now, let us look at a fancier version of the above. What if you want to connect if not connected and disconnect if already connected? Please note, this script could be extended beyond this level depending upon specific requirements. I have started with the skeleton and will be happy to receive better scripts from you.

Code block modified on 11th December 2022 for better error handling. 

<#
https://community.spiceworks.com/topic/2271983-auto-connect-vpn
http://woshub.com/popup-notification-powershell/
POWERSHELL error handling for Invoke-Expression
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/32348794/how-to-get-status-of-invoke-expression-successful-or-failed
#>
            
$vpnname = 'Your VPN Name'
$vpnusername = "YOURUSERNAME"
$vpnpassword = "YOURPASSWORD"
$cmd = $env:WINDIR + "\System32\rasdial.exe"
            
try {
    $vpn = Get-VpnConnection -Name $vpnname -ErrorAction Stop
    $Success = $vpn.ConnectionStatus
}
catch {
    Write-Host "Please use Windows Network and Internet Setting to define a VPN Connection"
}

try {
    if ($vpn.ConnectionStatus -eq "Disconnected") {
        $expression = "$cmd ""$vpnname"" "
        $Success = Invoke-Expression -Command $expression 
        if ($LASTEXITCODE -ne 0) {
            $wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
            $Output = $wshell.Popup("$Success", 0, "$vpnname Status", 64)
        }
        else {
            $wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
            $Output = $wshell.Popup("Connected.", 0, "$vpnname Status", 64)
        }
    }
    else {
        $vpnstatus = $vpn.ConnectionStatus
        if ($vpnstatus -eq "Connected") {
            $wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
            $Output = $wshell.Popup("$vpnname will be disconnected, Are you sure?", 0, "$vpnname Status", 4 + 32)
            if ($Output -eq 6) {
                $expression = "$cmd ""$vpnname"" /DISCONNECT"
                Write-Host $expression
                Invoke-Expression -Command $expression 
                $wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
                $Output = $wshell.Popup("VPN Disconnected", 0, "$vpnname Status", 64)
            }
        }
    }
}
catch {
    $wshell = New-Object -ComObject Wscript.Shell
    $Output = $wshell.Popup("There was an unexpected error connecting VPN," + 
        " Please check whether you have defined the $vpnname correctly." + 
        " Check your username & password, Server IP address etc", 0, "$vpnname Status", 64)
}

Please note, I am a beginner with PowerShell(Also) and always will be. As usual, I have provided the links to original codes & possible other links those helped me to device the above.

The above can, dial your VPN connection, warn you before you disconnect etcetera. For my ease, I prefer to use the extended version of the script as I keep on switching the connections. You may able to extend the script once again by accepting the VPN connection name, so that you can use the same script for dialing different VPN connections (if you have many)

Have suggestions? please pass them to me through the comments section.

Windows 11 | Remote Server Administration Tools (RSAT)

On By windows7bugsIn Windows 11Leave a comment

A wonderful article about installing RSAT (Remove server administration tools) on Windows 11 is available at How To Install RSAT On Windows 11 PCs HTMD Blog (anoopcnair.com)

I would like reiterate something Anoop has mentioned in his article. If you are using Microsoft SCCM or Windows Update Services (WU), then you must enable the local group policy as he has mentioned clearly in his post.

The image attached by Anoop could be bit confusing for the local group policy setup, hence I am uploading one with better visibility. The path is “Computer Configuration->Administrative Templates->System” & you need to open “Specify settings for optional component installation and component repair”

No need to reboot the computer for installing RSAT components. Follow Anoop’s thread and be a happy Administrator!