ORA-01078/ LRM-00123: Troubleshoot Junk Characters in Oracle Initialization File

So many times we stuck into situation where we were helpless to start database instance using simple oracle text initialization file for auxiliary instance or some test instance. Usually this is very common whenever we copy the sample or source parameter file from some html or formatted document editor, which allow Unicode text. Frustrating thing is that even after checking test file on normal vi editor or notepad couple of time will also not allow to get rid of that mess-up in parameter file. In this situation there are multiple ways to fix the issue.

• Copy the content into notepad and then copy back to the unix console to see if it help. Focus on special characters like ‘, ‘ , “,” etc . Autosuggest options of smart word editors usually convert actual characters into these formatted charters. As soon as you copy the full parameter file content in to notepad or any other low end text editor it’s not that difficult to manually correct it until unless the size of configuration file is large.

 

• Other way is to use od (Octal Dump), a very old utility of unix OS.

 

Today we will demonstrate the troubleshooting of junc character by using od as well as conventional method.

 

Here we have created two text parameter files and one with ‘ ‘  instead of  ‘ ‘

[oracle@maskmt11g.lgk.nmk] ls -lrt initMASK*

-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 912 May 6 16:46 initMASK11G.ora_correct

-rw-r–r– 1 oracle oinstall 916 May 6 16:54 initMASK11G.ora

[oracle@maskmt11g.lgk.nmk] diff initMASK11G.ora_correct initMASK11G.ora

17c17

< *.db_name=‘mask11g‘

—

> *.db_name=‘mask11g‘

 

Let’s try to start instance using this corrupted parameter file.

SQL> startup nomount pfile=’/home/oracle/initMASK11G.ora’

LRM-00123: invalid character 128 found in the input file

ORA-01078: failure in processing system parameters

Step By Step Installation of 11.2.0.3.0 Standalone RDBMS Software

Going forward with 11gR2 oracle recommending out of place upgrade so providing full installer for major upgrades (i.e. 11.2.0.1.0 , 11.2.0.2.0, 11.2.0.3.0) instead of patchsets. Then we can apply bundle patch or custom patches based on our requirement.

For 11.2.0.3.0, software is available on MOS with patch number 10404530 and could be easily downloadable. This patch contains total 7 files but we need only p10404530_112030_platform_1of7.zip & p10404530_112030_platform_2of7.zip (2.32 GB) to install DB software. This patch is actually full release and could be used for upgrade as well as new installation.

Prerequisite RPMs

binutils-2.17.50.0.6

compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3

elfutils-libelf-0.125

elfutils-libelf-devel-0.125

elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.125

gcc-4.1.2

gcc-c++-4.1.2

glibc-2.5-24

glibc-common-2.5

glibc-devel-2.5

glibc-headers-2.5

kernel-headers-2.6.18

ksh-20060214

libaio-0.3.106

libaio-devel-0.3.106

libgcc-4.1.2

libgomp-4.1.2

libstdc++-4.1.2

libstdc++-devel-4.1.2

make-3.81

numactl-devel-0.9.8.i386

sysstat-7.0.2

unixODBC-devel-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm

unixODBC-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm

Note: 64 bit installation also searches for i386 unixodbc rpms.