Install SUSE 10 with favorite toys

It was already a long time ago I played with Suse, but last week I finally installed it again...
My goal: have a fast/"last" linux system with my favorite toys: Oracle DB 10.2.0.2, Apache (companion cd), APEX 2.2.1, SQL Developer 1.0.0.15, JDeveloper 10.1.3.1 and Firefox.

I used Open Suse 10 and although this version is not certified to run Oracle 10gR2, it works. Certified versions of linux are the "Enterprise" versions of Suse or Redhat. I didn't use the Enterprise version, as I would like to see the latest "glitter and glamour" ;-)

ATTENTION: if you're installing a production environment with Oracle soft, please use a certified system!!

I'll describe in this post how I installed all of the above as it didn't all work "out-of-the-box".

1. Installation of Open Suse 10 (free version)
First thing to do, download the soft from the Suse FTP Server and write it on DVD.
I decided to put Suse next to my Windows XP (I have only 1 partition on 1 disk). This goes really smooth: you do a checkdisk and defrag of your disk in Windows. Afterwards startup the pc with the Suse DVD and tell the installer to dynamically shrink the Windows partition to the needs of linux. I used the setup of partitions as the installer proposed. After clicking a few time "next" you'll have a dual boot, Windows - Suse Linux. Ah, as desktop environment I used GNOME... Before I often used KDE, but now I thought to try something else, as I found KDE a bit "heavy". I always had the impression that GNOME was a little bit "faster"/"smoother" than KDE, although my experience is maybe a bit out of date.

2. Installation of the Oracle Database 10gR2
There's a nice article on the website of Dizwell Informatics (Howard J. Rogers) which describes this step in great detail (even with video). You find it here.
I followed almost all the steps mentioned in the article, but there were also some additional steps:
- To get Apache working, I needed the file libdb.so.2. Via YAST -the configuration tool of Suse- I installed the Berkeley database soft, found on the Suse DVD, because the necessary libs come with it.
- Next to what Howard says, I also had to add to my /etc/hosts file my machine name after 127.0.0.1 localhost. That solved my problem with my listener and em when I wasn't connected to a network (I use a laptop). (Error: can't find host)
- I didn't install a database together with the Oracle 10gR2 soft. After the "software only" install was completed successfully, I installed the companion cd (Apache) and after that the patch 10.2.0.2 which can be downloaded from Metalink.
- Only after the patch was applied I created a new (custom) database. If you create a template based database (for ex. general or data warehouse) you need to apply the patch to the database, if you do it like I did, it's already done (latest soft used to create the database).
- My dbora file looks a bit different, as I start more than only the database

3. Installation of APEX 2.2.1
Download APEX 2.2.1 from OTN here. The APEX documentation is here.
Follow the installation notes, and verify you put the marvel.conf at the end of httpd.conf. I also needed to comment "PlsqlDocumentPath docs" in the marvel.conf file out.

4. Installation of JDeveloper and SQL Developer
Download SQL Developer from OTN here and JDeveloper here.
Installing these is very simple, just unzip it into your preferred directory. However I needed to install the SUN java package before. You find it here.

Tips:
- As with every other product it's important to read through the documentation... Not a long time ago somebody remembered me again. I thought to know something, but as Tom Kyte says it often: "features change through time", and I would like to add to that: "or you just forget about it".
- Ensure you've at least 10 GB free disk space.
- Run the Oracle Installer as follows (to bypass it's not a certified environment): ./runInstaller -ignoreSysprereqs
- Ensure all processes are running (for ex.: ps -ef); you should see a lot of oracle and Apache processes
- Check log files for problems (HTTP-, alert, opmn, ...)
- Create shortcuts to your favorite applications
- To get my Firefox "java enabled" I had to create a symbolic link to my java directory (cd /usr/lib/firefox/plugins and ln -s /usr/java/jre1.5.0/plugin/i386/ns7/libjavaplugin_oji.so). You can download the java runtime environment here.

My Experience so far:
I really like my Suse system. I've the impression that the Oracle tools run smoother in a linux environment. My system needs some time to start, but when it's there, it works really well.