How to install 10G Release 2

Downloaded the latest Oracle software as it was made available, Wednesday. Finally got around installing it. Plenty of good documentation out there; of course Werner Puschitz , my reference for Oracle installs on Linux, has the details already.
And, one could always start by reading the Installation Manual by Oracle, or just read on. With this wealth of resources already in place, this will be a crash installation course...

Let's start by explaining I already have 9iRel2 and 10gRel1 installed on my "database server", running White Box Linux, so it's not exactly on a clean machine, I'm running this excercise...
I start with creating a new software owner, with the groups, that go with it:
[root@csdb01 root]# groupadd dba102
[root@csdb01 root]# groupadd oinstall102
[root@csdb01 root]# useradd oracle102 -g oinstall102 -G dba102 -c "Oracle 10G Release 2 software Owner"

Now, check if I got the latest required packages installed (courtesy to Werner):
[root@csdb01 root]# rpm -q make gcc glibc compat-db compat-gcc compat-gcc-c++ compat-libstdc++ compat-libstdc++-devel openmotif21 setarch libaio
make-3.79.1-17
gcc-3.2.3-49
glibc-2.3.2-95.30
compat-db-4.0.14-5.1
compat-gcc-7.3-2.96.128
compat-gcc-c++-7.3-2.96.128
compat-libstdc++-7.3-2.96.128
compat-libstdc++-devel-7.3-2.96.128
openmotif21-2.1.30-9.RHEL3.6
setarch-1.3-1
libaio-0.3.96-5

libaio is not mentioned in the Oracle Installation Guide Prerequisites but will be handy lateron... Kernel version is ok, too:
[root@csdb01 root]# uname -r
2.4.21-27.0.2.EL
As I have more installs of Oracle, I know kernel and memory settings are OK. Time to get the downloaded zip file, unzip it and give it correct ownership:
[root@csdb01 10201]# cd /o/share/install/oracle
[root@csdb01 oracle]# mkdir 10201
mkdir: cannot create directory `10201': File exists
[root@csdb01 oracle]# cd 10201
[root@csdb01 10201]# unzip ../10201_database_linux32.zip
...
[root@csdb01 10201]# chown oracle102:oinstall102 -R ../10201
[root@csdb01 10201]# ll
total 4
drwxr-xr-x 6 oracle102 oinstall102 4096 Jul 2 19:09 database
Looks good... time to start Xterm...
Downloading Cywin X-term, but in the mean time, I'll use vnc, so telinit 5 and start vnc: vncserver.
But then:
[root@csdb01 root]# su - oracle102
[oracle102@csdb01 oracle102]$ cd /o/share/install/oracle/10201/database/
[oracle102@csdb01 database]$ ./runInstaller
You do not have sufficient permissions to access the inventory '/o/oracle10/oraInventory'. Installation cannot continue. Make sure that you have read/write permissions to the inventory directory and restart the installer.: Permission denied
Oops! I have already mentioned it, I have other versions installed as well. What I run into now, is the odd thing of Oracle, to have one central file that indicates where the software inventory resides. As I want different releases installed and running, I have different software owners (allows me to test patches independently!). I have to simulate a clean machine, by removing the 10G Release 1 file:
[root@csdb01 10201]# mv /etc/oraInst.loc /etc/oraInst10R1.loc
[root@csdb01 10201]# cp /etc/oraInst10R1.loc /home/oracle10/
Just to be on the safe side...
Let's give it a retry... Hm. It's just not my day... I know what is wrong here, and I just forgot:
[oracle102@csdb01 database]$ Xlib: connection to ":1.0" refused by server
Xlib: No protocol specified

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.InternalError: Can't connect to X11 window server using ':1.0' as the value of the DISPLAY variable.
Need to issue xhost + as root, in an X window. That's all...
Finally, I get the Oracle Universal Installer screen... Of course, I want an Advanced Installation. Leave the Inventory location (/home/oracle102/oraInvemtory) and the ownership (oinstall102) as it is. As for the options, I would go for the Standard Version, but I want to have a look into embedded encrypted columns, and I have a feeling that's EE only.... So check EE. Change the install location, and -to my surprise- kernel checks fail:
Checking for rmem_default=262144; found rmem_default=65535. Failed <<<<
Checking for rmem_max=262144; found rmem_max=131071. Failed <<<<
Checking for wmem_default=262144; found wmem_default=65535. Failed <<<<
Checking for wmem_max=262144; found wmem_max=131071. Failed <<<<
Something new, I suppose?!? Well, starting the install with a real Windows End User attitude (run first, read later when failures), I should not be surprised. I will deal with them later, before creating the database, which I always do using scripts.
There is a change in the installer, too: it now asks what I want: create a database, just install the software, or configure ASM (Automatic Storage Management). Now, as far as I looked into ASM, I'll need disk farm(s), volumes, or mount points for it - and I never anticipated that when setting up this "server", so ASM is a no-go for the time being. I'll go for the db creation (hoping I can stop at the last moment). Of course, I go for the Advanced Database creation, with the options to pick. There are no options to pick for the database install; you'll just get the lot!
While the installation process is humming, that gives me the time to change the kernel parameters. Edit the /etc/sysctl.conf file, and add the release 2 stuff (in addition to the 10G Release 1 and iAS stuff):
# Oracle specific requirements...
kernel.shmmax=2147483648
kernel.sem=250 32000 100 128
fs.file-max=65536
net.ipv4.ip_local_port_range=1024 65000

# Oracle iAS Specific...
kernel.msgmnb=65535
kernel.msgmni=3000
fs.file-max=65535

# Oracle 10g Release 2 additions
net.core.rmem_default = 262144
net.core.rmem_max = 262144
net.core.wmem_default = 262144
net.core.wmem_max = 262144

According to the manual, you should now boot. Very windows - you are not loading a new kernel, you are just changing kernel boundaries, and you go do that dynamically, using the sysctl -p command. Also, according to the kernel parameter section you do not need the net.core prefix; I needed them, sysctl did not understand the way the parameters are presented in the Oracle Installation Manual. First documentation bug for 10G Release 2 found?
In the mean time, installation and linking is done, the net configuration assistant has completed, and I start the Database Configuration Assistant. I do not have some Enterprise options, like UltraSearch and Advanced Security. Anyway; the database scripts have been created and saved. Time to logon as the new oracle owner, and tidy up:
Edit .bash_profile (I know, some people want another file, but I am used to this, and the difference between su - oracle and su oracle):
# Oracle 10G Release2 Specifics...
export ORACLE_BASE=/o/oracle10
export ORACLE_HOME=$ORACLE_BASE/10gR2
export ORACLE_SID=o10gR2
export LD_ASSUME_KERNEL=2.4.20
export PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH:.:/sbin:/usr/sbin:
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=$ORACLE_HOME/lib:/lib
Exit, and activate:
. .bash_profile
Note, there's a dot and a space to start with! Alter listener and tnsnames, and (re-)start the listener. Make sure you have something like:
Service "o10gR2" has 1 instance(s).
Instance "o10gR2", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
Then you know it's ok.
Checked the scripts, init file and CreateDb.sql. Found something new to me: smallfile:
create database ....
datafile ....
SMALLFILE DEFAULT TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMP TEMPFILE '/o/oracle10/....

Of course, neede to change the MAXSIZE UNLIMITED to reasonable sizes (2~4GB), but for the system tablespace.
The logfiles are of a reasonable size, finally: 50M, not something for a production system, but OK for my purposes. And of course, still have to change the "set echo on" in CreateDBCatalog.sql to "set echo off". I mean, catalog creation log files of a couple of hundred kB - who reads 'em anyway?!? Back in the 7.3.4 and 8.0 days, I usually added a termout off as well.
Anyway, after some time, I get this:
SQL*Plus: Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production on Sun Jul 10 14:19:58 2005
Copyright (c) 1982, 2005, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
and, after fiddling tnsnames.ora on my client:
SQL*Plus: Release 10.1.0.2.0 - Production on Sun Jul 10 14:25:35 2005
Copyright (c) 1982, 2004, Oracle. All rights reserved.

Connected to:
Oracle Database 10g Enterprise Edition Release 10.2.0.1.0 - Production
With the Partitioning, OLAP and Data Mining options
And that's what this was all about! Let's try some of
the New Features!