can't connect '/ as sysdba'

I'm still googling for answers but it's looking like I won't be finding one, so time to ask here.

I am working as a consultant with a 9.2.0.8 installation. I was present when it was installed and didn't see anything out of the ordinary happen. It seems to function normally with one exception - no matter what I do, I get an ORA-01031 "Insufficient privileges" error when I try to connect with '/ as sysdba', which prevents dbstart and dbshut from working. I have worked with other 9i installations and have never had this problem before.

Most of the suggestions boil down to making sure that group assignments are correct and that TWO_TASK is not set, and I've followed up on both of those. The group that owns all of the files in $ORACLE_HOME is the same one that's set in config.c and is the oracle user's primary group. I am only expecting this to work as the oracle user.

What else could be wrong?

thanks,

janine

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