Monday, February 05, 2007
Getting Ready for Windows Vista
The Oracle Database on Windows Vista Statement of Direction is now up on OTN and it provides time frames for the planned releases of Oracle Database on Vista.
EDIT (5/4/07): The 32-bit Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 as well as Oracle Database XE are now certified on Windows Vista. The 32-bit Oracle Client is now packaged up in a simple single install so you don't need to patch your way from 10.2.0.1, nor will you need access to Metalink. Read my recent blog entry for more details. The text in the blog entry below was an unsupported "hack" that you won't need to use anymore. If you do decide to apply the 10.2.0.3 patch instead of downloading the whole 10.2.0.3 client from OTN, please follow the installation instructions in the 10.2.0.3 patch release instead of the instructions below.
Prior to those release dates, many developers who support Windows clients (.NET, ODBC, OLEDB, OO4O etc) will want to get a head start and do some testing of their applications. Unfortunately, the 10.2.0.1 Oracle Installer (the one on all the CDs) will not run properly on Vista. But there is a way you can get around this. It's a bit of convoluted hack, and none of this is supported officially, but it should help you get started testing.
The gist of it is: The installer that is included with the 10.2.0.3 patchset DOES work on Vista and must be used to first install the 10.2.0.1 Oracle Client software, and then used to upgrade to the 10.2.0.3 Oracle Client. The upgrade to 10.2.0.3 is required because there are a few other Vista related fixes in the 10.2.0.3 patchset.
The following instructions explain how to do this:
1) Obtain 10.2.0.1 client CD or zip file (from OTN)
2) Download the 10.2.0.3 Oracle patchset for 32-bit Windows from Oracle MetaLink and unzip it. (https://metalink.oracle.com/)
3) Change directory to the 10.2.0.3 Disk1\install directory, open oraparam.ini using notepad (or any editor) and comment out the line "SOURCE=../stage/products.xml" by adding a # to the beginning of this line.
4) Run setup.exe from 10.2.0.3 Disk1 directory, point to the 10.2.0.1 CD location's products.xml file and proceed with install of 10.2.0.1.
5) The pre-requisite check will fail. This is expected. Click in the boxes next to the errors. This will change them to say "User Verified." Then click "Next" to continue.
6) Once 10.2.0.1 has been installed as above, uncomment the "SOURCE=../stage/products.xml" line in Disk1\install\oraparam.ini file in 10.2.0.3 patchset
7) If you wish to test "ODP.NET for .NET 2.0 version 10.2.0.2.20", you will need to download and install ODAC from OTN at this point, since only "ODP.NET for .NET 1.1" is included in the 10.2.0.3 patch.
8) From the 10.2.0.3 directory, run Disk1\setup.exe and upgrade the 10.2.0.1 install to 10.2.0.3
That's it! Er, well of course that's just the start. Now you proceed to test your application!
I can sense a veritable storm of blogging coming up in my near future, so stay tuned!
EDIT (5/4/07): The 32-bit Oracle Database 10.2.0.3 as well as Oracle Database XE are now certified on Windows Vista. The 32-bit Oracle Client is now packaged up in a simple single install so you don't need to patch your way from 10.2.0.1, nor will you need access to Metalink. Read my recent blog entry for more details. The text in the blog entry below was an unsupported "hack" that you won't need to use anymore. If you do decide to apply the 10.2.0.3 patch instead of downloading the whole 10.2.0.3 client from OTN, please follow the installation instructions in the 10.2.0.3 patch release instead of the instructions below.
Prior to those release dates, many developers who support Windows clients (.NET, ODBC, OLEDB, OO4O etc) will want to get a head start and do some testing of their applications. Unfortunately, the 10.2.0.1 Oracle Installer (the one on all the CDs) will not run properly on Vista. But there is a way you can get around this. It's a bit of convoluted hack, and none of this is supported officially, but it should help you get started testing.
The gist of it is: The installer that is included with the 10.2.0.3 patchset DOES work on Vista and must be used to first install the 10.2.0.1 Oracle Client software, and then used to upgrade to the 10.2.0.3 Oracle Client. The upgrade to 10.2.0.3 is required because there are a few other Vista related fixes in the 10.2.0.3 patchset.
The following instructions explain how to do this:
1) Obtain 10.2.0.1 client CD or zip file (from OTN)
2) Download the 10.2.0.3 Oracle patchset for 32-bit Windows from Oracle MetaLink and unzip it. (https://metalink.oracle.com/)
3) Change directory to the 10.2.0.3 Disk1\install directory, open oraparam.ini using notepad (or any editor) and comment out the line "SOURCE=../stage/products.xml" by adding a # to the beginning of this line.
4) Run setup.exe from 10.2.0.3 Disk1 directory, point to the 10.2.0.1 CD location's products.xml file and proceed with install of 10.2.0.1.
5) The pre-requisite check will fail. This is expected. Click in the boxes next to the errors. This will change them to say "User Verified." Then click "Next" to continue.
6) Once 10.2.0.1 has been installed as above, uncomment the "SOURCE=../stage/products.xml" line in Disk1\install\oraparam.ini file in 10.2.0.3 patchset
7) If you wish to test "ODP.NET for .NET 2.0 version 10.2.0.2.20", you will need to download and install ODAC from OTN at this point, since only "ODP.NET for .NET 1.1" is included in the 10.2.0.3 patch.
8) From the 10.2.0.3 directory, run Disk1\setup.exe and upgrade the 10.2.0.1 install to 10.2.0.3
That's it! Er, well of course that's just the start. Now you proceed to test your application!
I can sense a veritable storm of blogging coming up in my near future, so stay tuned!
