Oracle XE on Ubuntu Hardy

I just installed Oracle XE following the instructions I got from here. After the installation I was unable to successfully log into the Database Home page. It told me: Invalid Login Credentials. This seams to be a common problem with the Linux installation. The solution is all though very simple and is shown under “post installation tasks” at the end of this post.

Installation

Add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian unstable main non-free

Next, you will need to add the GPG key.

wget http://oss.oracle.com/el4/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle  -O- | sudo apt-key add -

As root, type:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install oracle-xe
sudo /etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Post Installation Tasks

To fix the “Invalid Login Credentials” bug: It looks like the installer sets the wrong password on the sys and system users when running the configure command. The solution is simple, just change the password.

First add you user to the dba group.

sudo usermod -a -G dba yourusername

Then log in with your OS username as sysdba.
Paste the following lines into a shell and press enter:

ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export ORACLE_HOME
export ORACLE_SID=XE

export PATH

(If you close the shell now, you will have to do it again, so keep it open. To make it persistent paste the lines into your ~/.bashrc file. )

sqlplus / as sysdba

And change the password

alter user system identified by newpassword;
alter user sys identified by newpassword;

Now you should be able to successfully log into the Database Home page with both the sys and the system user.