Re: Need help creating a database

>I'm sorry, I don't understand. I'm trying to create a new instance, so far
>with zero success, there is not yet a password file for it. Do you mean the
>OS password file? /etc/passwd. Is there another password file that might
>be the problem?

I'm referring to the password file Eric de Redelijkheid was describing (except I don't think the sys username and password in an "as sysdba" connect does anything).

ls -l $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/*pw*

It is a common silly error to misname or misuse that file. But if you are working entirely on the server, probably not the problem. But worth mentioning since it will give your error in some combinations of settings/environment - setting remote_login_passwordfile=none as you did should moot any problem... if you set it in the right file. Show us the path and name of your pfile and the line with that setting. Speaking of environments and silly mistakes - you are exporting your environment variables? Don't be offended, these are the things that will make you bald as me. Sometimes people miss differences between login shell and subsidiary environments, too, especially when switching SID's. I see your post where you export ORACLE_SID - have you tried uppercase? I'm getting into longshots here, that's a way long gone bug..

Another oddness, at least on earlier SunOS (I don't think I've been on 5.8) is you can start up an instance, using up some interprocess memory, then not be able to start another one because of the previous one. I'm wondering if the ownership is different if you will see your error (you see a different error if the ownership is the same). ipcs to check, and perhaps look for unexpected files in $ORACLE_HOME/dbs.

jg

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