ORA-03113 when debugging

[g_lagaffe]

We recently encounter the following problem:
When starting a debug session (e.g. within a test window) we get an ORA-03113 end-of-file on communication channel. Simultanously a trace file is written by the server containing messages like
*** 2003-07-16 15:39:38.842
*** SESSION ID

41.2108) 2003-07-16 15:39:38.832
Probe:read_pipe: receive failed, status 1
Probe:S:debug_loop: timeout. Action 1
*** 2003-07-16 16:03:00.702
Probe:read_pipe: receive failed, status 3
Probe:S:debug_loop: timeout. Action 1

The bad thing on this is that whenever this problem occurs noone will be able to start a debugging session on the database until we shutdown the database (which only works with shutdown abort!) and restart it. We would urgently need a solution to recover from that state without having to restart the DB.

Closing all pipes either by flushing the shared pool or using the appropriate dbms_pipe function doesn't help.

We are using PL/SQL Developer V5.1.0.662 on WIN-NT clients and Oracle Database Server V9.2.0.1.0 under Red Hat Linux

 

[Marco Kalter]

Perhaps you can try the following:

1. Reload the dbms_debug packages. As a result of previous dbms upgrades, the dbms_debug packages can cause problems. You can logon to the server computer, go to $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/admin, start SQL*Plus under the SYS account, and run pbload.sql. Check if this has a positive influence on the problem.

2. Wait for PL/SQL Developer 5.1.3 which contains some debugger fixes. It will be released today or tomorrow. I'm not sure if it specifically addresses this issue though.

------------------
Marco Kalter
Allround Automations

 

[g_lagaffe]

ad 1.) we tried to reload the package but neither recompiling nor replacing the package was possible. Whenever we tried to recompile dbms_debug or one of the referenced packages the corresponding session hangs and can only be killed.
ad 2.) we got the new release of PL/SQL-Developer and installed it immediately. It doesn't seem to solve the problem when it is already there but maybe it helps to prevent the problem from reoccuring.

We also opened an Oracle TAR for that problem and got the answer that we most prosumably ran into bug 2434873, which can be resolved by applying the following patch

the following instructions are copied from the answer to our TAR)
***************
1. Login to metalink.oracle.com.
2. Select patches
3. Select New Metalink Patch Search
4. Enter patch number: 2434873
5. select GO
6. select your platform and then Download
7. Always read the README file.
8. Make sure you always have a valid backup before patching a system.
**********

We applied the patch today. Since it was necessary to shut down the DB for that step (which temporarily resolves the problem at any case) we can't tell if it really helps yet. When we don't encounter problems during the next days I will post it here.

 

[Seeker]

I've faced with the same problem (unavaliable debugging). What can you advise me in the situation? I've been working with 5.1.4.730 PL/SQL Developer. Oracle 9.2.0.4 under Win2000 SP4.

 

[g_lagaffe]

from the time we applied the patch as described above we didn't have the problem again. I don't know if the patch is also available for Win2000 and I assumed that the problem should already be resolved in 9.2.0.4 (we had 9.2.0.1 then), but you can check it out.