Oracle8i^TM Personal Edition

Release Notes

Release 2 (8.1.6) for Windows 98

May 2000

Part No. A85315-01

These Release Notes document important last-minute information not included in the Oracle8i Personal Edition Release 2 (8.1.6) for Windows 98 documentation set.

Specific topics discussed are:

• Important: READMEDOC.HTM and Additional READMEs

• Installation Issues

• README Files

• Oracle8i Navigator

• Java Support

• INIT.ORA parameter

• SQL*Net

• Net8

• Oracle8i Assistants

• Display Colors

• Oracle Data Migration Assistant

• Oracle Database Configuration Assistant

• Oracle Trace

• ORADIM

• Icon Creation on Windows 98 Systems

• Oracle Call Interface

• Using SQL*Loader

• RMAN

• Storing Database Files on Compressed Drives

• ODBC

• Extensibility Demos

• Creating a Clean Machine

Important: READMEDOC.HTM and Additional READMEs

A file called READMEDOC.HTM is located at the top-level of the Oracle8i CD-ROM. It contains important last minute information not included in these Release Notes or the documentation set. Please review this file before installing or using this product.

Additional product README files are located in the product subdirectories under the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME directory or in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\RELNOTES directory.

Installation Issues

1. Verify System Requirements--ensure that the system requirements in the installation documentation have been met.

2. Before installing an Oracle8i server ensure that any existing Net8 or SQL*Net listeners on the same computer are stopped. An existing listener may prevent the Net8 8.1 listener from starting during the Oracle8i install due to listener endpoint conflicts with an existing listener. For more information on installing and using Net8, see Net8 later in this release note.

3. Users on certain configurations may experience a slight pause at the completion of the file copy phase of the installation process. Please be patient; Oracle Universal Installer is completing functions necessary to begin the final installation phase.

4. Post-installation Recommendation--Oracle recommends running the utlrp.sql script found in the ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin directory after creating, upgrading or migrating a database. This script should be run by user SYS, there should be no other DDL running on the database while it is running, and package STANDARD and DBMS_STANDARD must already be valid. This script recompiles all PL/SQL modules that may be in an INVALID state, including packages, procedures, types, etc. This step is optional, but recommended as the cost of recompilation is incurred during the installation rather than in the future.

5. When using Silent Mode installation, Custom install is not supported and will not work.

6. During Custom Installation, if you choose to configure Naming Methods and want to test the connection to your local database, you will have to explicitly stop the database from the command prompt. To do this, go to ORACLE _HOME\bin and run KNLSTOP.

Oracle Universal Installer

1. If your system PATH is longer than 1024 characters, installing Oracle products will reset the PATH. The implications could be one of the following:
   • If the system starts up but other applications fail to start, you need to manually add the required directories to the existing PATH. Modify your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and reboot the machine.

   • In multi-boot systems, if you do not see a logon screen, restart the system again. Press the space bar at the OS LOADER menu then select Windows 98 and boot to "Last Known Good Menu".

2. Spaces are not allowed in the directory path for the Oracle home.

3. Silent installations are recommended in cases when no interaction with the user is intended or when a non-graphical terminal is used. The user needs to first edit a response file (in most cases provided) to specify the components to install.

4. When mounting a CD-ROM on a Novell drive to a Windows 98 workstation and running Oracle Universal Installer, you may get the following error: "The Java Runtime Environment was not found at <location> hence the Oracle Universal Installer cannot be run". As the Novell server does not support long filenames, the directory path for JRE_LOCATION is not recognized (some of the directory names have more than 8 characters). Therefore, this configuration is not supported. Try mounting the CD-ROM locally or on a Windows NT Server.

5. On slower computers you may notice a "flicker" at the Oracle Universal Installer loading screen. It does not affect the installation in any way.

6. The Help window invoked from Oracle Universal Installer's Inventory window cannot be scrolled or resized the second time it is accessed. A workaround is to close the Inventory window. The Help window is now accessible. Resize the Help window, then close it. The next time you invoke Help from the Inventory window, it will appear at that size. This is a bug due to Java Development (JDK) 1.1.8.

7. When installing Oracle8i on dual boot systems, the software uses the same physical space on both operating systems. Therefore, any tasks done on Windows 98 will also be done on Windows NT, including deinstallation.

   You can avoid this by performing the following steps:

   • Install Oracle8i Release 2 (8.1.6.) into the first environment.

   • Before installing in the second environment, provide a different location than the default when Oracle Universal Installer prompts you where to write the Oracle Universal Installer inventory. The second environment inventory will be independent of the first, and products can be installed or deinstalled separately on both systems.

8. The Oracle Provider for OLE DB, being a COM component, is not multiple Oracle Home compliant. Only one version of Oracle Provider for OLE DB can exist on a computer at a time.

   If you have the beta version of Oracle Provider for OLE DB installed on your computer, deinstall that provider before reinstalling the new provider.

System Requirements on FAT Systems

On FAT file systems, the calculation of the space requirements as reported by Oracle Universal Installer for each of the available installation options is incorrect.

The following tables show the correct amount of space required for each installation type. The installations listed were done on a FAT partition, with a block size of 32K.

Oracle8i Personal Edition for Windows 98:

Installation Type	RAM	Hard Disk: FAT	Hard Disk: System Drive
Typical	96MB	510 MB	15 MB
Minimal	96MB	480 MB	15 MB

Installing online documentation from DOC CD will require additional 407 MB of hard disk space.

Initial Installation

Attention: If you have an existing 8.0.x, 7.x, or earlier Oracle home and you want to install Release 8.1.6 on the same computer, use a different Oracle home location than the previous install(s). If you attempt to install into the same Oracle home, Oracle Universal Installer will prevent you from installing.

An out-of-memory problem has been reported by users on minimal systems (64MB; 128MB of RAM is recommended) when running the Oracle Database Migration Assistant. If you are using a minimal system, Oracle Corporation recommends that you increase virtual memory to 200 MB (modify it in System Properties). Ensure that your system has enough disk space necessary before proceeding with an installation by reading "System Requirements" in your installation guide.

Subsequent Installations

When you begin to install products a second time after initially installing using Oracle Universal Installer, (if you choose to perform a Custom installation) you will see that the products you previously installed are selected. For example, if you previously installed Oracle Server and SQL*Plus, those items will be selected in the list of installable products.

To install additional products, select those products, but do not deselect the products you have already installed. If you deselect the products you previously installed, they will be deinstalled.

If you reinstall products using Oracle Universal Installer, reboot your machine after installation.

Web-based Installations with Oracle Universal Installer

Oracle Universal Installer supports Web-based installations of Oracle components with one limitation: the configuration tools normally launched at the end of a Typical, Minimal, or Custom installation do not automatically start. Instead, perform the following steps:

1. Exit Oracle Universal Installer at the end of installation.

2. Run Oracle Database Configuration Assistant and Net8 Configuration Assistant separately.

This limitation will be fixed in future releases.

Silent Installation and Net8 Configuration Assistant

If you perform a Minimal installation of Oracle8i Personal Edition in silent mode, Net8 Configuration Assistant fails to configure your system at the end of the installation. After installation, complete Net8 configuration by running Net8 Configuration Assistant from the Oracle home directory.

Deinstallation

Oracle JServer is an integral part of Oracle8i Personal Edition for Windows 98. You cannot deinstall Oracle JServer separately from other products installed with Oracle8i Personal Edition Release 2 (8.1.6).

Oracle Homes Issues

• Installing products into new 8.1 Oracle homes using the previous Oracle Installer (V3) is not supported.

• Do not set ORACLE_HOME in the environment path.

• If you install Oracle Client software into an Oracle home, and then perform an Oracle8i installation into the same Oracle home, the listener will not be created. Perform the second installation into a different Oracle home to create the listener.

Installation Tips

If you exit Oracle Universal Installer (OUI) during an installation (kill the OUI, machine reboots, etc.), or if the installation does not complete (that is, ALL required configuration tools are not run at the end) OUI will not register the installation in its inventory. Files may have been copied to the Oracle Home, so it is best to first remove those files manually and restart the installation.

If you delete an Oracle Home manually (without using OUI), the products in that home remain registered with OUI. If you next attempt an installation in the same home, some or all products selected may not be installed because OUI determines they are already installed.

The workaround is to first use OUI to deinstall the products in that home (which removes them from OUI inventory), then reinstall in the same home.

README Files

You will find several README files included with your products.

Although these release notes contain vital information you need, other important or interesting information is contained in the README files.

README files may be included for products you did not purchase or license. Their presence does not mean that you can install and use those products.

Use the HTML version of your library to access all of the release notes and README files.

Oracle8i Navigator

Support for updating BLOB, CLOB and BFILE has been added. Updation of NCLOB is not supported in this version. Other enhancements are: Database Parameter Configuration option and Support for SQL window.

Java Support

The JServer of Oracle8i 8.1.6 Personal Edition supports only Java Stored Procedures. It does not support Enterprise Java Beans and CORBA.

INIT.ORA parameter

Current setting of SHARED_POOL_SIZE is 15MB, for better performance you can set it to 50MB provided you have enough memory.

SQL*Net

Networking components for releases 7.3 and 8.0 are not included on the Release 8.1.6 CD-ROM. If you need these components, obtain the 8.0.5 Client software (part number A65346 contains the 7.3.4 and 8.0.5 RSFs) from Oracle Support Services.

Net8

Specific topics discussed are:

• Installation Requirements

• Net8 Configuration Requirements for Windows 98

• Networking Tools

• Configuring a Listener Using Net8 Configuration Assistant (Net8CA)

• Configuring Oracle Names Server with Net8 Assistant

• Named Pipes on Windows 98 (for clients only)

Additional Information: See the README.NET8 file located in ORACLE_HOME\NETWORK\DOCS for additional information that is not included in the printed documentation.

Installation Requirements

Before installing an Oracle8i server, ensure that any existing Net8 or SQL*Net listeners on the same computer are stopped. An existing listener may prevent the Net8 8.1 listener from starting during the Oracle8i install due to listener endpoint conflicts with an existing listener.

If Net8 8.1 listener could not be started during Oracle 8i installation due to conflicts in listening endpoints, you should first resolve the conflicts by changing listener configurations and then start your Net8 8.1 listener by using the listener control program:

From a command prompt:

lsnrctl start <listener_name> 

where <listener_name> is LISTENER for typical install or the listener name given during custom install.

Net8 Configuration Requirements for Windows 98

You need to comment out sqlnet.authentication_services = (NTS) in the sqlnet.ora file. The installation process (Net8 Configurer) generally takes care of it; but we suggest you to check it again before starting listener.

Networking Tools

In 8.1.6 two networking tools are included:

Net8 Configuration Assistant (Net8CA)

The Net8 Configuration Assistant performs basic Net8 configuration during install. It is also available after install to provide similar configuration capabilities such as configuring a new listener or a net service name for local (tnsnames.ora) naming.

1. When configuring a listener using Net8CA, it will only configure TCP. If you want to add entries for SPX or Named Pipes, you must use Net8 Assistant.

2. While configuring listener, option of choosing Named Pipes Protocol (NMP) appears. But NMP is not supported on server side on Windows 98. So you should not select it while installing through Custom Installation option.

Net Assistant (NETASST)

The Net8 Assistant is an administrators tool. It provides for configuration for most Net8 components excluding Connection Manager.

With this release it provides an improved user interface, support for complex net service name addressing, a new help system, as well as support for new Oracle8i features.

Configuring a Listener Using Net8 Configuration Assistant (Net8CA)

When configuring a listener using Net8CA, it will only configure TCP/IP. If you want to add entries for SPX or Named Pipes, you must use Net8 Assistant.

Configuring Oracle Names Server with Net8 Assistant

When configuring Oracle Names servers with Net8 Assistant, consider the following:

1. In addition to deleting an Oracle Names server from the Oracle Names Servers folder, you must manually delete Oracle Names server entries in the ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\NETWORK\ADMIN\NAMES.ORA and ORACLE_BASE\ORACLE_HOME\NETWORK\NAMES\CKP*.ORA files.

Creation of Oracle Names servers on Windows 98 is not supported, but the functionality is not disabled from Net8 Assistant. Net8 Assistant allows you to create Oracle Names servers, but you cannot start, stop, or configure them.

Named Pipes on Windows 98 (for clients only)

If you use the Named Pipe protocol on a Windows 98 system to connect to an Oracle Server (running on NT or other OS but not Windows 98), client applications may run very slowly due to a known problem in Microsoft's implementation of Windows 98 NWLink Direct-Hosting.

To work around this problem, you may do any of the following:

• Use other protocols (e.g. TCP/IP, SPX) for connecting from Oracle client.

• Remove the protocol NWLink from Windows 98 system if you do not need to access NetWare Servers.

• Disable Direct-Hosting feature on Windows 95.

Please refer to Microsoft documentation for detailed information.

Oracle8i Assistants

When you use an Assistant, you must have read/write access to the directory where database files will be moved/created.

Display Colors

Net8 Assistants (and Oracle Database Configuration Assistant and Oracle Data Migration Assistant for servers) require monitors displaying at least 16 colors. If your monitor displays less than 16 colors, these assistants will not start.

Oracle Data Migration Assistant

1. Before migrating a version 7 Oracle database to Release 8.1.6, perform the system checks listed in "Oracle8i Migration". See "Migrating an Oracle7 to Oracle8i" in Chapter 4, "Installing and Upgrading Databases" in Oracle8i Personal Edition Administrator's Guide for Windows 98 for more information on performing these checks.

2. If you migrate an 8.0.x database to 8.1 using Database Migration Assistant, you may get this error message:

   An error occurred while upgrading your Oracle database. Check the 
   log files to determine if the upgrade was successful.
   

If you receive this message, do the following:

• Click OK.

• Click View Summary in the subsequent box that appears. If only error ORA-00604 appears, dismiss the dialog box and continue. This error is incorrect and will not affect operation. If other ORA- errors appear, they must be addressed.

3. If you use the JOB_QUEUE_PROCESSES parameter in the INIT.ORA file, it will be disabled during migration. After migration has completed, you must re-enable this parameter.

4. After upgrading Oracle database Release 8.1.5 to Release 8.1.6, when 8.1.6 database is mounted for the first time, the shutdown of that session will take quite some time. This is because of the DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS in INIT.ORA file is set to 200 in 8.1.5 database, where as the optimal value for DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS is 2048 for 8.1.6 Personal Edition database for Windows 98. To avoid this delay, you can modify the DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS parameter in INIT.ORA file to set it to 2048 before starting the database for the first time after migration. The delay in shutdown will not be experienced second time onwards even if DB_BLOCK_BUFFERS parameter is not modified with optimal value for 8.1.6 database.

5. When choosing Browse in any dialog box to select a directory, the Directory Browse dialog will appear, showing only your current drive. If you wish to browse a different drive, enter that drive letter in the Directory text field and press Return or click OK.

6. While migrating or upgrading your Oracle database to Release 8.1.5, if your rollback segments are not large enough, you may receive one of the following errors:

   ORA-01628; max # extents (number) reached for rollback segment 
   segment_name
   ORA-01562; failed to extend rollback segment number segment_
   number
   

If you receive one of these errors during migration, use one of the following commands to increase your rollback segment size:

alter rollback segment segment_name storage(maxextents number); 
alter rollback segment segment_name storage(maxextents 
unlimited);

7. When migrating 7.3.2.3.1 to 8.1.6.0.0, this text will get logged into <SID>summary.log. The errors can be ignored and will not affect the use of the migrated database.

   No Errors 
   No Errors 
   No Errors 
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15522   ORA-04068: 
   existing state of packages has been discarded
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15523   ORA-04063: 
   package body "SYS.DBMS_OUTPUT" has errors 
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15524   ORA-06508: 
   PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15597   ORA-04068: 
   existing state of packages has been discarded
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15598   ORA-04063: 
   package body "SYS.DBMS_OUTPUT" has errors 
   h:\oracle\ora81\assistants\dbma\ORCLCAT.LOG:15599   ORA-06508: 
   PL/SQL: could not find program unit being called
   

8. DBMA will not come up when clicked through Start>Programs>ORACLE_HOME>Migration Utilities>Oracle Data Migration Assistant if a previous version of Oracle database was not present in your system when 8.1.6 installation was done; the following message will be displayed on the screen:

   Usage: dbmig/SID <sid_name>/OLDDIR <old database Home>
   

9. While migrating 7.3.4 database to 8.1.6, you might get ORA-19502 error:

In case of this error, please run the following SQLs from SQL*Plus and remigrate:

SQL> create tablespace index_data datafile 

'<ORACLE_HOME>\database\indx1orcl.ora' size 25M reuse autoextend on 
next 5M maxsize 150M;

SQL> alter tablespace system add datafile

'<ORACLE_HOME>\database\migsystem.ora' size 250M autoextend on;

Oracle Database Configuration Assistant

Oracle Database Configuration Assistant has been added to Oracle Personal Edition for Windows 98 product CD in this release.

Oracle database Configuration Assistant can be used to create a custom database with/ without replication option. The starter database has been created with the replication option on.

If Oracle Database Configuration Assistant does not startup, please delete the 'SID_LIST' key from
'HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\HOMEid' and then try to invoke DBCA again.

Oracle Trace

(Bug 1187624) Performing two or more simultaneous Oracle Trace collections for an Oracle8 for Windows 98 database may cause the database to crash. Oracle Trace database collections must be limited to only a single active collection at any time, until a patch is available or this has been corrected in a future release.

This restriction does not apply to multiple simultaneous Oracle Trace collections for other non-database products.

ORADIM

Deleting an Instance Using ORADIM

To delete an instance, use the following commands:

ORADIM -DELETE -SID SIDA, SIDB, SIDC, ... 

where:

SIDA, SIDB, SIDC are the values of the SIDs to delete.

Icon Creation on Windows 98 Systems

On Windows 98 systems that have been configured for use for multiple users, the icons used to launch Oracle programs from the Windows 98 Start Menu are not displayed correctly by the operating system.

To correct this problem, copy the Oracle Program Group folders located on the hard drive in the directory:

WindowsDirectory\Start Menu\Programs

and place them in the directory:

WindowsDirectory\profiles\username\Start Menu\Programs

The actual location on the hard drive where the Oracle Program Group folders need to be placed may vary from system to system but can be determined by right-clicking on the "Start" button located on the Taskbar, then clicking "Explore" or "Open". A window will open indicating the location of the "Programs" directory in which the Oracle Program Group folders need to be copied.

Oracle Call Interface

Obsolete Functions

The Oracle Call Interface (OCI) Release 8.1 provides a wide range of new features and functions. All calls available in Release 7.x are still supported, but they are not able to take full advantage of new Oracle8i features. Release 8.0 of the Oracle Call Interface introduced an entirely new set of functions which were not available in Release 7.x. Release 8.1 adds more new functions. The earlier 7.x calls are still available, but Oracle recommends that existing applications start using the new calls to improve performance and provide increased functionality. Please refer Chapter-1 of the Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide, Vol I for more information.

For Win32 applications running on Windows 98, this means that these applications will need to migrate to the new Release 8.x OCI calls in order to continue to be supported. In Release 8.x, the library and DLL containing the OCI calls is named oci.lib and oci.dll. In Release 7.x, they were named ociw32.lib and ociw32.dll. At some point in the future, ociw32.lib and ociw32.dll will no longer be supported or released, making migration to the new calls mandatory.

Initialization of an OCI Environment

The initialization of an OCI environment in Shared Data Mode as discussed in Chapter-2 of the Oracle Call Interface Programmer's Guide, Volume I, is not supported on Windows 98 in this release. It will be available in future releases.

Using SQL*Loader

When using SQL*Loader to direct load an Index-Organized Table, you may receive an internal error if the table has an Overflow segment.

RMAN

1. In 8.1.6, TSPITR (tablespace point-in-time recovery) is not supported on Windows 98.

2. In 8.1.6, the rman DUPLICATE DATABASE command is not supported on Windows 98.

Storing Database Files on Compressed Drives

Do not store database files on a compressed drive. Doing this can result in write errors, as well as decreased performance.

ODBC

Updated 8.1.6 ODBC drivers are available for download via the web. Please check http://www.oracle.com (type ODBC in the search field on Oracle's Home page, then choose the drivers you require) for the latest version of the ODBC driver from Oracle.

Extensibility Demos

Before running extdemo1.sql and extdemo2.sql demos, copy utlxplan.sql (from $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin) to the location in which you plan to run these demos. Modify extdemo1.sql and extdemo2.sql to replace @'?/rdbms/admin/utlxplan.sql' or @'?/rdbms/admin/utlxplan' with @utlxplan.

Creating a Clean Machine

In rare situations, some users may want to correct serious system problems by completely removing Oracle products from their system.

This is not recommended as an easy way to fix problems, especially common ones. Only create a Clean Machine as a last resort, and only if you want to remove all Oracle products from your system. Complete the following steps to create a Clean Machine.

On Windows 98:

1. In regedit, go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ORACLE.

2. Delete the ORACLE key.

3. Delete HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\odbc.

4. Edit your AUTOEXEC.BAT file and remove your %ORACLE_HOME%\bin and JRE paths from the path setting.

5. From the Windows Explorer (or from the command prompt), delete the Oracle directory (Oracle Base).

6. Delete <system_drive>: \Program Files\Oracle (from the Windows Explorer or from the command prompt).

7. Delete Icons from <system_drive>: \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Oracle - <HOME> and <system_drive>: \Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Oracle Installation Products. Where <HOME> is the previous HOME name.

8. Reboot your computer.