This appendix provides potential cause and possible solution information for all OUI errors. The information is arranged in numerical order according to the OUI error message numbers.
OUI cannot determine the platform of this system. This may occur if OUI is running on a system that is not supported or there is a bug in OUI. Please confirm that the system is a supported configuration; if it is supported, please contact Oracle Support.
OUI determines the platform from the file
<ORACLE_HOME>/inventory/ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml
This message can occur from one of the following causes:
OUI cannot detect the platform from the
<ORACLE_HOME>/inventory/ContentsXML/oraclehomeproperties.xml file.
OUI is running on an unsupported system.
There is an OUI bug.
Check the Certifications tab in My Oracle Support to confirm that the system is a supported configuration:
https://support.oracle.com
Contact Oracle Support.
The target area <location_of_oraInventory> is being written to by another session. Please close all the other(write) sessions for accessing inventory.
For any write operations in the inventory, OUI acquires a lock. The writer.lock file is created under the <oraInventory>/locks directory. The error message appears if a lock exists in <oraInventory>/locks that another OUI has already acquired.
Check if a writer.lock file already exists in the <oraInventory>/locks directory.
Check if another OUI is running in the system that can hold a lock on the oraInventory.
For UNIX, you can use this command:
% ps -ef | grep runInstaller
For Windows, you can use one of these commands:
> tasklist | findstr /R "setup.exe"
> tasklist | findstr /R "oui.exe"
> tasklist | findstr /R "javaw.exe"
(Make sure that this is the Java process related to OUI.)
Stop the process, then try to start OUI again.
You do not have sufficient permissions to access the inventory <location_of_oraInventory>, unable to remove an existing inactive writer lock file in the inventory. Make sure you have enough permission to the ''locks'' directory to create/remove the writer.lock file.
For any write operations in the inventory, OUI acquires a lock. The writer.lock file is created under the <oraInventory>/locks directory. The global inventory (oraInventory) was locked by another process and the writer.lock file still exists even after the process exited. The current OUI (process) is not able to remove the writer.lock file, because the permission for the current user does not allow this. Possibly, the current user is neither the owner nor the member of the group that owns the <oraInventory>/locks directory.
Make sure you have write permission on the <oraInventory>/locks directory.
Either change the ownership of <oraInventory>/ to the current user, or include the current user in the group that owns the <oraInventory> directory, provided that the group has write permission to the <oraInventory> directory.
The target area <location_of_oraInventory> is being used as a source by another session. A write lock cannot be obtained.
For any write operations in the inventory, OUI acquires a lock. The writer.lock file is created under the <oraInventory>/locks directory. This error message appears if the <oraInventory> directory is accessed by another process (may be third party tools also) so that OUI cannot create a writer.lock file in the <oraInventory>/locks directory.
Check if any process is accessing <oraInventory>. If so, kill/stop the process. For UNIX, you can use this command:
/sbin/fuser <path_to_oraInventory>
The target area <location_of_oraInventory> is being written to by another session. A read lock cannot be obtained.
Another process has locked the global inventory (oraInventory). For any reading operation or when OUI is started, OUI creates a reader.lock file in the <oraInventory>/locks directory. Since a writer.lock file already exists in the <oraInventory>/locks directory, OUI cannot create a reader.lock file.
Check if a writer.lock file already exists in the <oraInventory>/locks directory.
Check if another OUI is running in the system that can hold a lock on the oraInventory.
For UNIX, you can use this command:
% ps -ef | grep runInstaller
For Windows, you can use one of these commands:
> tasklist | findstr /R "setup.exe"
> tasklist | findstr /R "oui.exe"
> tasklist | findstr /R "javaw.exe"
(Make sure that this is the Java process related to OUI.)
Stop the process, then try to start OUI again.
The target area {0} cannot be used because it is in an invalid state.
This error can occur for many reasons. The cause is usually global inventory (oraInventory) corruption.
Make sure you have write permission on the <oraInventory> directory.
Check the health of the inventory using this OPatch command:
% OPatch lsinventory Verify that the command is able to list the details.
If the central inventory is corrupted, you can recreate it. For information about this, see Note 556834.1 - "Steps To Recreate Central Inventory (oraInventory) In RDBMS Homes" accessible through your My Oracle Support account.
The DISPLAY environment variable is not set. The DISPLAY environment variable should be set to <hostname or IP address>:<screen>, where the <screen> is usually :0.0.
The DISPLAY environment variable is not set, which OUI requires.
Check if the DISPLAY environment variable is set. Use the following command to view the current DISPLAY environment variable setting:
echo $DISPLAY
If the DISPLAY environment variable is not set, use the following command to see what shell is being used:
% echo $SHELL
Use one of the following commands for your UNIX shell as an example to set the variable:
For the csh shell:
% setenv DISPLAY 192.168.1.128:0.0
For sh, ksh, and bash shells:
$ DISPLAY=192.168.1.128:0.0
$ export DISPLAY
Unable to start an interactive install session because of the following error:{0} The DISPLAY environment variable should be set to <hostname or IP address>:<screen>, where the <screen> is usually ''0.0".
The DISPLAY environment variable is not set properly, or client users are not authorized to connect to the X Server.
Check if the DISPLAY environment variable is set. Use the following command to view the current DISPLAY environment variable setting:
echo $DISPLAY
If the DISPLAY environment variable is not set, use the following command to see what shell is being used:
% echo $SHELL
Use one of the following commands for your Unix shell as an example to set the variable:
For the csh shell:
% setenv DISPLAY 192.168.1.128:0.0
For sh, ksh, and bash shells:
$ DISPLAY=192.168.1.128:0.0
$ export DISPLAY
Make sure that client users are authorized to connect to the X Server. To enable client users to access the X Server, open an xterm, dtterm, or xconsole as the user that started the session and type the following command:
% xhost +
To test that the DISPLAY environment variable is set correctly, run an X11 based program that comes with the native operating system, such as xclock.
If you are unable to successfully run xclock, refer to your PC-X Server or OS vendor for further assistance.
The directory location you have specified ( <location> ) is not registered as an Oracle Home in the central inventory. Do you want to continue installation in this Oracle Home?
OUI is not able to retrieve the Oracle Home details from the Central inventory (oraInventory).
Check whether the Oracle home is present in the central inventory. Use the following command to determine this:
% OPatch lsinventory -all
If the Oracle home is not present in the central inventory, use one of the following applicable commands to register the Oracle home with the central inventory:
For Unix, use these commands:
% cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin % ./launch -attachHome ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home Path>"
For Windows, use these commands:
> cd %ORACLE_HOME%/oui/bin > setup.exe -attachHome ORACLE_HOME="<Oracle_Home Path>"
You have specified a non-empty directory to install this product. It is recommended to specify either an empty or a non-existent directory. You may, however, choose to ignore this message if the directory contains Operating System generated files or subdirectories like 'lost+found'.
The Oracle Home path (directory) specified for the installation already exists, and the directory contains files or subdirectories.
Select one of the following choices:
Check if any directory/files exist inside the Oracle Home directory specified. Remove the directories/files if they are not required, then continue the installation. You can ignore directories like "lost+found".
Specify another non-existent directory as the Oracle home. OUI creates it during installation.
Specify a directory that is empty.
Note:
Use the-force option to continue past this error for a silent installation.You have specified a non-empty directory to install this product. It is recommended to specify either an empty or a non-existent directory. You may, however, choose to ignore this message if the directory contains Operating System generated files or subdirectories like 'lost+found'. Do you want to proceed with installation in this Oracle Home?
The Oracle home path (directory) specified for the installation already exists, and the directory contains files or subdirectories.
Select one of the following choices:
Check if any directory/files exist inside the Oracle home directory specified. Remove the directories/files if they are not required, then continue the installation. You can ignore directories like "lost+found".
Specify another non-existent directory as the Oracle home. OUI creates it during installation.
Specify a directory that is empty.
Note:
Use the-force option to continue past this error for a silent installation.Inventory location cannot be empty.
This message appears only if you used the -invPtrLoc argument, as in the runInstaller -invPtlLoc command.
Specify the location for the Central Inventory and continue with the installation.
The inventory location <location> set by the previous installation session is no longer accessible. Do you still want to continue by creating a new inventory? Note that you may lose the products installed in the earlier session.
There can be multiple causes for this error. Generally, most of the problems will be related to:
Incorrect inventory location specified in the oraInst.loc file.
Improper permissions on the inventory location specified in the oraInst.loc file.
Make sure that the inventory location specified in the oraInst.loc file is correct and also you have proper permissions on the specified location.
Inventory location is invalid.
Potential Causes and Possible Solutions
There are several reasons this message can appear:
The inventory location is truly invalid:
The oraInventory being pointed to through the inventory_loc reference in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file or inst_loc in the registry is a non-existent location or has extra characters in the directory path listed.
Fix — Search for the oraInventory directory on the system and change the location in oraInst.loc or inst_loc to point to the correct location, or if the path listed is incorrect, correct it.
The oraInventory being pointed to through the inventory_loc reference in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file or inst_loc in the registry is not the directory oraInventory.
Fix — The directory pointed to needs to end with oraInventory
(/usr/opt/oracle/oraInventory). Modify inventory_loc in oraInst.loc to point to the valid oraInventory directory or the inst_loc in the registry.
The oraInventory being pointed to through the inventory_loc reference in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file or inst_loc in the registry is oraInventory, but has no subdirectories.
Fix — If the location has no subdirectories, it has been cleaned out accidentally. If you have an up-to-date backup of this area, try restoring the oraInventory; otherwise, you will need to reinstall all software versions that are on the host to repopulate the oraInventory.
The user attempting to perform the installation cannot access the inventory location.
The oraInventory being pointed to through the inventory_loc reference in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file or inst_loc in the registry has permissions that restrict the user running the OUI from writing to oraInventory.
Fix — Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the installation. If so, then you will need to do a recursive chmod to enable access to the oraInventory:
$ chmod -R 770 <full path>/oraInventory
... and 660 for files under that.
Permissions might not be one of the causes, but the default permissions OUI creates are 770 for directories and 660 for files.
The group listed for group= in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file is different than the group of the user running the OUI, and cannot access or write to oraInventory.
Fix — Ensure that you are in the correct group to perform the installation. If so, you will need to do a recursive chgrp to specify the correct group ownership of the oraInventory:
$ chgrp -R <correct group> <full path>/oraInventory
Note:
"inst_loc" on Windows should always point to%SYSTEMDRIVE%\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory. Manually changing this to point to another directory is unsupported.You do not have permission to write to the inventory location.
The inventory location is not accessible by the user attempting to perform the installation. The oraInventory being pointed to through the inventory_loc reference in the /var/opt/oracle/oraInst.loc file or /etc/oraInst.loc file or inst_loc in registry has permissions that restrict the user running the OUI from writing to the oraInventory.
Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the installation. If so, you will need to do a recursive chmod to enable access to the oraInventory:
$ chmod -R 770 <full path>/oraInventory
Could not create the inventory location. You may not have permission to write to this location.
The Oracle user does not have proper permission for the inventory location specified during installation.
Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the installation, and that you have proper permissions in the specified directory. Check this using the following command:
% ls -l <location>
If you do not have proper permissions, provide them as shown:
% chmod -R 755 <full path>
You do not have the necessary permissions to write to the inventory at <LOCATION>. Please make sure that you have the appropriate permissions to perform the installation.
You do not have write permission for the inventory location specified during installation.
Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the installation, and that you have proper permissions in the specified directory. Check this using the following command:
% ls -l <location>
If you do not have proper permissions, provide them as shown:
% chmod -R 755 <full path>
Unable to read install inventory <Location> on this system. Please check if you have the proper permissions to read/write to the inventory.
You do not have read permission for the inventory location specified during installation.
Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the installation, and that you have proper permissions in the specified directory. Check this using the following command:
% ls -l <location>
If you do not have proper permissions, provide them as shown:
% chmod -R 755 <full path>
Unable to read inventory pointer file: Check if you have the proper permissions.
The inventory pointer (oraInst.loc) is owned by root and other users have read permission for it. For example:
[oracle@oracle ~]$ ls -l /etc/oraInst.loc -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 65 Oct 3 18:42 /etc/oraInst.loc
But in this case, there is no read permission for the Oracle user on the inventory pointer.
Ensure that you are the correct user to perform the inventory actions, and that you have proper permissions in the inventory pointer (oraInst.loc). Check this using the following command:
% ls -l <location>
If you do not have proper permissions, provide them as shown:
% chmod -R 644 <location>
Unable to read inventory location registry entry. Check if the registry entry exists and if you have the proper permissions.
Accessing the inventory pointer (orainst_loc) key requires administrator privileges; other users will have read permission.
The following command displays the central inventory pointer (orainst_loc) key and value:
C:\>reg query HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORACLE /v inst_loc
Make sure that you have administrator privileges to read the registry HKLM\SOFTWARE\ORACLE\inst_loc.
The selected location already contains an Oracle Home or APPL_TOP created while running a different OS.
This error can occur for the following reasons:
The software/patchset you are trying to install is intended for a different platform.
The <Central_inventory>/install.platform file is corrupted.
Make sure that the software/patchset you are trying install is intended for the same platform, and make sure that the <Central_inventory>/install.platform file is not corrupted.
The install.platform file is written to only during inventory creation and does not become corrupted unless someone manually changes it.
Unable to generate temporary script: Unable to continue install.
This error usually occurs when generating the orainstRoot.sh script in the /tmp directory. You may not have proper permissions in the /tmp directory, or /tmp is full.
Check the permissions of the /tmp directory:
% ls -l /tmp
Make sure that the /tmp directory has the proper write permissions. Run this command:
% chmod 0777 /tmp ( as root )
Check if the /tmp directory has enough space for creating the file.
Unable to modify the group ownership of the OUI inventory to the requested group name. Either the specified group doesn't exist, or the current userid does not belong to that group. If the group exists, you may run the shell script as root to change the group name after installation is complete.
This error usually occurs when the root.sh script attempts to modify the Central inventory group ownership.
Make sure that the group specified at the start of the installation is an existing group.
Make sure that you are a part of the particular group specified at the start of installation. Check the group dba as shown in the following example:
%cat /etc/group | grep dba dba:x:502:oracle
In this example, the group is dba, the group ID is 502, and the user oracle is a part of the dba group.
Error in accessing the registry.
This error usually occurs when you do not have administrator rights/permissions on the registry.
Make sure that you have administrator privileges to access/modify the registry.
Check the permissions in regedit —> hkey_local_machine —> software —> oracle (Permissions - advanced tab).
Error in updating the registry.
This error usually occurs when you do not have administrator rights/permissions on the registry.
Make sure that you have administrator privileges to access/modify the registry.
Check the permissions in regedit —> hkey_local_machine —> software —> oracle (Permissions - advanced tab).
The OUI Inventory on this system does not exist or is not writable. The possible POTENTIAL/POSSIBLE CAUSES are:1. The script <path>/orainstRoot.sh was not executed with root privileges, or an error occurred during execution.2. You are not a member of the specified installer group.
One of the following situations may apply:
The permissions for the orainstRoot.sh script are not set correctly for execution as root user.
You are not part of the particular group specified at the start of installation.
Make sure that the script is run as user "root."
Make sure that you are a part of the particular group specified at the start of installation. Check the group dba as shown in the following example:
%cat /etc/group | grep dba dba:x:502:oracle
In this example, the group is dba, the group ID is 502, and the user oracle is a part of the dba group.
English cannot be removed from the selected languages. English files are always installed.
This message appear when you try to deselect English. If multiple languages are defined for the installed products, Oracle Universal Installer enables language selection for all installation types through the "Languages" button.
If you click on the Product Languages, the screen with a selection/deselection list appears. In this situation, English is selected by default and you cannot deselect it, because English files are always installed.
Do not attempt to deselect English from the language list, as English files are always installed.
The patch, which is part of patch set, has not been selected for installation.
You may be trying to install the binaries on top of an incorrect Oracle home, such as installing 11.1.0.7.0 on top of 10.2.0.4.0.
Install the base software (11.1.0.6.0 in this example) in a separate Oracle home and the upgrade the database.
The staging area needs Oracle Universal Installer version <version> or later.
The OUI you are trying to use is an older version, so the installation cannot continue. For instance, you may encounter this error when trying to install Oracle RDBMS 11.2 or later with an 11.1.0.6 OUI.
Use the OUI version specific to the version of the Oracle software. For instance, installation of Oracle RDBMS 11.2 requires OUI 11.2 or later.
Some of the components you selected cannot be deinstalled because they were installed using Oracle Universal Installer version {0}. Please use Oracle Universal Installer version {0} or higher to deinstall these products.
The OUI you are trying to use is an older version, so the de-installation cannot continue. For instance, you may encounter this error when trying to de-install Oracle RDBMS 10.2 or later with a 10.1 OUI.
Use the OUI version specific to the version of the Oracle software for de-installation. For example, de-installation of Oracle RDBMS 11.2 requires OUI 11.2 or later.
This is a required component. You cannot de-select a required component.
This error can occur when you attempt to de-select a required component. There may be dependencies with the component you are trying to de-select. For example, this message appears when you are doing a custom installation of Oracle RDBMS and are trying to de-select a required component that is required for the functioning of the Oracle RDBMS kernel.
It is not possible to de-select a required component.
There are no patches that need to be applied from the patchset Oracle <version> Patchset "x.x.x.x.x."
Oracle Software might already be installed on x.x.x.x.x.
You might be applying the patchset x.x.x.x.x on an incorrect Oracle home.
The local inventory may be corrupted.
Start SQL*Plus and check the banner for the version to make sure that the version of the software is correct.
Make sure that you are applying the patchset on top of the correct Oracle home.
Make sure that the inventory is healthy. Check if OPatch lists all of the products:
% OPatch lsinventory -detail
If the local inventory is corrupted, you need to reinstall the software, then continue with the installation.
The selected patches cannot be applied in this Oracle Home. Please try installing them in a different Oracle Home.
The patch/patchset you are trying to install is not suited for the particular Oracle home.
The patchset may be a different version; for instance, when you are trying to install a 11.1.0.7.0 Oracle home on top of a 10.2.0.4.0 Oracle home.
The patchset you are trying to install is a lower version, such as installing an 11.1.0.7.0 patchset on top of an 11.2 Oracle home.
Check the version of the Oracle home:
% <ORACLE_HOME>/OPatch/OPatch lsinventory -detail
Make sure that the patchset is suited for the version of the Oracle home.
Problem in saving inventory. Installation cannot continue.
This error message can occur because you do not have proper permissions on the inventory, or there is an OUI bug.
Before you install the 11.2 software, make sure you have sufficient write permissions on the central inventory and the local inventories of all existing Oracle home directories listed in the Central inventory.
You may not have enough space to write to the inventory. Do you still want to continue?
This error occurs when the space is full in the disk where the inventory resides.
Make sure that you have sufficient space in the disk before you continue with the installation. Otherwise, continuing may lead to inventory corruption.
You may not have enough space to write to <location>. Please create more space at this location and try again.
The disk is full where the Oracle home is being installed or already installed. The base software/patchset installation can therefore not continue.
Add more space to the disk and try the installation again.
Some of the configuration assistants failed. It is strongly recommended that you retry the configuration assistants at this time. Not successfully running any recommended assistants means your system will not be correctly configured. Select the failed assistants and click the 'Retry' button to retry them.
Some of the recommended Configuration Assistants failed during installation.
Retry the failed Configuration Assistants.
Some of the configuration assistants failed. However, these are optional assistants, so they are not required for the correct configuration of your system. If you want to try to run those assistants again, select the failed assistants and click the 'Retry' button.
Some of the optional Configuration Assistants failed during installation.
Retry the failed Configuration Assistants or invoke the Configuration Assistant after the installation. For example, for DBCA:
<ORACLE_HOME>/bin/dbca
Unable to synchronize home. Not enough permission to write to directory.
OUI attempts to synchronize all the Oracle homes at the end of the installation. This message can occur when the user installing Oracle does not have sufficient permissions on the other Oracle home.
Make sure that you have sufficient permissions for the Oracle homes, or you are from the group specific to all the installations.
There was a problem in accessing the staging area. File not found.
OUI expects certain files to be present in the staging area, but OUI could not find them because the staging area may be corrupted.
Make sure that the downloaded software (staging area) is not corrupted.
This inventory requires Oracle Universal Installer version {0} or higher.
The OUI you are trying to use is an older version, so the inventory operations cannot continue. For example, you may encounter this error when trying to update the inventory of Oracle RDBMS 11.2 or later with an 11.1.0.6 OUI.
Use the OUI specific to the version of the Oracle software for de-installation.
An <OH_Name> with name <NAME> already exists at location. Please specify another location for <path>.
An Oracle home already exists in the path selected for the installation.
Select another path for the installation, or de-install the Oracle home already installed in the particular path (if no longer required) and perform the new installation.
An Oracle home with name <Name> already exists at location. Please specify another name.
An Oracle home with the specified name already exists in the inventory.
Specify another name for the Oracle home and continue with the installation.
The Oracle home is not valid for cloning. Install-time information cannot be retrieved for component.
This error can occur because some of the components are not properly installed or the inventory is not properly updated.
Either correctly install the missing components in the source ORACLE_HOME or remove them prior to cloning.