MacLochlainns Weblog

Back in September, I showed how to setup Oracle Database 11g XE on Fedora. It was straightforward more or less, but tonight I ran into a problem while working with the Oracle Stop Database menu option. When I selected it form the menu, I got the user must be in the DBA OS group to stop the database.

Since the database started automatically on boot and shutdown when closing the operating system, I missed this nuance in the setup. The screen shot for the error is:

Oracle Database 11g XE automatically creates an oracle user with a dba group. While the mclaughlinm user was in the wheel group and an authorized sudoer, the mclaughlinm user needed to also be in the dba group. That’s more tricky in Fedora 15 and 16 because they’ve removed the System menu and the options that let you install and modify users.

Here are the steps to add your user to the dba group. Open a terminal session, and launch the User Manager application with the following command:

system-config-users

You have to enter the root password to get this to work. Then, it launches the User Manager application. Click on the target user, and click the Properties button.

The User Manager application launches the User Properties dialog. Click on the Groups tab.

Scroll in the groups list to the dba group. Click the checkbox for the dba group and the OK button.

Now, you’ll be able to navigate to through the menu to Stop Database to shutdown and Start Database to restart the Oracle database.

Hope this helps a few folks.