Erman Arslan's Oracle Forum / OCT 12 - NOV 24, 2023 - "Q & A Series"

Remember, you can ask questions and get remote support using my forum. Just click on the link named "Erman Arslan's Oracle Forum is available now". Click here to ask a question", which is available on the main page of Erman Arslan's Oracle Blog. More than 2000 questions were asked, almost 10000 comments have been made and here is the links to the latest questions from the last period;

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Supporting the Oracle users around the world. Let's check what we have in the last few weeks..

APPS DBA Course by VinodNN

asm mounting state by Roshan

ECC Dashboards Implementation by prabhunoule

WF_Error Purge R12 by prabhunoule

Upgrade of AD/TXK Delta 14 by prabhunoule

File encryption using jar - ERP -Linux by satish

SSO connection failed with Error 404 by big

OFR pack/unpack with OHS by OFR Guy

Number of oacores and forms in EBS R12.2 by satish

Login Issue by satish

WFERROR in R12.2.5 by prabhunoule

Ebs12.1.3 to EBS 12.2.12 upgrade by raiq1

sparse disks by Roshan

adop phase=prepare failed by raiq1

performance issues by raiq1

Applying ADTXK Delta Patch 14 by prabhunoule

Upgrade of application show incorrectly 12.2.9 by prabhunoule

Performance Issues with SQL Queries by prabhunoule

grid space by Roshan

Adding a node failed. by raiq1

Autoconfig on patch file system failed. by raiq1

Checklist for Forms Slowness by VinodNN

Pending OPP issue with custom program by VinodN

exadata alerting by Roshan

autostart grid by Roshan

-Revisiting- --> Problem installing Oracle Linux 7 and 8 on Virtual Box 7.0.19 -- Unsupported command : unsupported_hardware

Found a quicker way to workaround the issue, that's why revisiting this  ->(https://ermanarslan.blogspot.com/2023/11/problem-installing-oracle-linux-7-and-8.html).

Some background info:

This problem is fixed in the Virtual Box Release version 7.0.12.

In the problem-free Virtual box release 7.0.12, they commented that unsupported_hardware line in the default ks.cfg, that is delivered with the Virtual Box. That ks.cfg is automatically used in unattended installation, as you may guess. Therefore, the unattended installation works properly in 7.0.12.

The Quicker Way -> So,  If you are still using  in 7.0.10, and if you just comment the unsupported_hardware line in the ks.cfg in the relevant directory, which is created on your PC with the Virtual Box installation, then the unattended installation will also work properly. No need for other extra efforts..

Also, it seems inconsistent to both provide ks.cfg in Linux boot and select unattended installation in Virtual Box. One of these should be done.

To boot with the kickstart in the problematic Virtual Box environments, the ks.cfg that comes with the virtual box should be modified (as suggested above) and unattended installation should be selected for the Linux boot. This is the simplest method to kick-start in Virtual Box. Actually, there is "no need" to go into the Linux ISO, repackage it and do any work there. If we select the unattended installation, then the Virtual Box uses its own ks.cfg to kickstart.. Probably Virtual Box has its own boot loader and that's why it is able to do it. I mean, without touching anything Virtual Box starts a kick start installation with its own ks.cfg and we don't need to  touch anything in the Linux ISO for this..  (This is just my opinion, I didn't dive too deep about it.. Just saying...)

Another fun departure from the norm : Another TV show! This time It was a LIVE Brodcast!

As an Oracle ACE PRO + System and Database Senior Director, I was the guest of University TV's Professional Agenda Program. We had a nice conversation about my areas of expertise with the host of the program. We had some chats on AI and Quantum Computing, too. We discussed proper career planning for university students. We talked about curiosity and passion in this context. This was a live broadcast on Wednesday, October 18, 2023.

Nowadays, offers are coming one after another for me to participate in the TV programs and I am starting to enjoy it :)

Here I 'm leaving some photos from the last show. Sharing the poster of the TV Program as well.. Just for the memories..

Problem installing Oracle Linux 7 and 8 on Virtual Box 7.0.19 -- Unsupported command : unsupported_hardware

Let's do some Linux & virtualization gymnastics by going through a real life problem.

Getting unsupported command: unsupported_hardware error during Oracle Linux 7 (and 8) installation on Virtual Box 7.0.10 (a very up-to-date release of Virtual Box release at the moment). 

The installation couldn't start actually.. It was terminated due to the unknown command error. (note that, this is not related with hardware.) That error message may be a bit misleading in the first glance.. Having unsupported_hardware there make it a bit counter-intuitive.. The real error is the unknown command error.. The installer just doesn't know the command which is "unsupported_hardware".

Source Specs: Windows 11 (or Windows 10) -- actually there is no causal connection between this error and the client OS.  The error seems purely related with Virtual Box. But! still noted the Windows version here.

The reason behind this error is using an deprecated command in the kickstart file..

unsupported_hardware is a deprecated command and that's why it was causing the error. (note that using these type of commands in the kickstart "may" cause an error and here it did!)

Brief info about kickstart:

Kickstart helps us to automate the installation with a simple text file.. 

It is an automated process that let us install the operating system by specifying all our requirements and configurations in a file.  (time zone, drive partitions, packages etc..) 

No user intervention is needed. 

It is mostly used when deploying Linux on a large number of systems at once.

Workaround 1)

In order to workaround the problem and continue the installation, open a different TTY when the issue appeared.. (using Ctrl + Alt + F3 : (tty3) or Ctrl + Alt + F4 : (tty4)). 

When opened the TTY, you 'll find yourselves in installation filesystem.. Modify the kickstart file (delete the unsupported_hardware line), save it and then run the anaconda from there, in that shell.. As simple is that.

Workaround 2)

A better workaround is to edit the vmlinuz command (by pressing TAB when the installation menu is displayed as seen in the screenshot below)..  Just delete the word quiet and the words related with the kickstart installation. Press Enter and you will be good.. The installation will start and it will be with GUI.

Note that, vmlinuz /Virtual Memory LINUx gZip = Compressed Linux kernel is the compressed image of the linux kernel. Uncompressed, loaded into memory, and executed during the process.

Workaround 3)

An even better workaround is to check the Skip Unattended Installation checkbox which is present in Virtual Box 7.0.1..  Skip unattended installation is enabled by default as far as I see, but we disable it..

Not all the Operating Systems are tested with this option.. (according to Oracle, following OEL versions are tested: Oracle Linux 6.1,Oracle Linux 7.0,Oracle Linux 7.7,Oracle Linux 8.0,Oracle Linux 8.2.. Note that we are trying with Oracle Linux 8.6....)

Workaround 4 - can be considered as the fix..

Regenerate Oracle Linux 8 iso with a modified ks.cfg / kick-start config file which doesn't contain that deprecated command. This is a stylish move, but a little complex -- especially if you are not that familiar with Linux..

Workaround 5 - "Just use Virtualbox 7.0.12" :) - this can also be considered as the fix.