Oracle Express edition on Ubuntu – control file missing

oracle

I have installed the Oracle Express edition on Ubuntu as mentioned here.

I am facing issues when I try to create a sample table.

Started oracle

$ sudo service oracle-xe start 
Starting Oracle Database 11g Express Edition instance.

Started sqlplus

$ sqlplus / as sysdba

Executed the CREATE command

SQL> CREATE TABLE SAMPLE (ID NUMBER);
CREATE TABLE SAMPLE (ID NUMBER)
*** ERROR at line 1: ORA-01109: database not open**

After a series of research on web, I tried to shutdown and restart oracle:

Shutdown command

SQL> shutdown
ORA-01507: database not mounted
ORACLE instance shut down.

Started the oracle instance

SQL> startup

ORACLE instance started.
Total System Global Area  688959488 bytes Fixed Size                 
2229688 bytes Variable Size             411044424 bytes Database
Buffers          272629760 bytes Redo Buffers                3055616
bytes ORA-00205: error in identifying control file, check alert log
for more info

I realized that the control file is missing at /u01/app/oracle/oradata/XE. XE is the DB name.

So I tried to create the control file as follows:

SQL> CREATE CONTROlFILE SET DATABASE XE RESETLOGS;

Control file created.

Tried to create the sample table again

SQL> CREATE TABLE SAMPLE(ID NUMBER);    
CREATE TABLE SAMPLE(ID NUMBER)

ERROR at line 1: ORA-01109: database not open

So I tried to issue the following command

SQL> ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS;
ALTER DATABASE OPEN RESETLOGS

ERROR at line 1:
ORA-01194: file 1 needs more recovery to be consistent**
ORA-01110: data file 1: '/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/dbs/dbs1XE.dbf'

What should be done next? I am clueless as I am not a database guy.

Note:

Output of

$ lsnrctl services

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 11.2.0.2.0 - Production on 04-JAN-2013 09:15:37

Copyright (c) 1991, 2011, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Connecting to (DESCRIPTION=(ADDRESS=(PROTOCOL=IPC)(KEY=EXTPROC_FOR_XE)))

Services Summary...

Service "PLSExtProc" has 1 instance(s).
 Instance "PLSExtProc", status UNKNOWN, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
    Handler(s):
      "DEDICATED" established:0 refused:0
         LOCAL SERVER
Service "XE" has 1 instance(s).
  Instance "XE", status READY, has 1 handler(s) for this service...
    Handler(s):
      "DEDICATED" established:0 refused:0 state:ready
         LOCAL SERVER
The command completed successfully

Best Answer

It seems that something went wrong on the oracle-xe configure step. Since this is a new install, I would follow the instructions for uninstalling and then the instructions for installing.