Posted By: trimipi New PC Multiple Oracle Clients Bad Config - 06/22/22 01:04 PM
Hi there,
I have a new pc that came with Oracle 12 installed. I could not update my tnsnames.ora file without admin privileges like I could on my old PC (my company locked access to this stock Oracle 12 install for some reason) so I requested a fresh install of Oracle 19. They installed Oracle 19 64 bit which does not work with PL/SQL Developer, so I then asked for Oracle 19 32 bit. I was able to update my tnsnames.ora file and could connect to an Oracle database. I was up and running!

Here's where things went south... I then asked them to uninstall Oracle 19 64 bit. Since then, I have been unable to connect to anything. They tried reinstalling Oracle 19 64 bit and I still can't connect. In Preferences>Oracle>Connection I don't even have anything in the Oracle Home dropbox and the entries in my tnsnames.ora don't show up in the login prompt.

***I can connect to the Oracle databases using SQL Developer, but I don't want to use that.

At this point, I don't know if I can fix this without uninstalling all Oracle clients and PL/SQL Developer and starting over, or if there's some less destructive solution.

Thanks


PL/SQL Developer
Version 13.0.6.1911 (32 bit)
13.128582 - 100 user license
Service Contract: None
Windows 10 (64-bit) Build 19041

Physical memory : 16,449,756 kB (8,395,972 available)
Paging file : 18,940,124 kB (10,430,616 available)
Virtual memory : 2,097,024 kB (1,793,240 available)

Parameters
C:\Program Files (x86)\PLSQL Developer 13\plsqldev.exe

Preferences
Session mode: Multi
OCI Library: <none>
Use OCI7: False
Allow Multiple Connections: True

Preference Files
C:\Users\sgrad\AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 13\Preferences\default\Default.ini
C:\Users\sgrad\AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 13\Preferences\sgrad\default.ini

License File
C:\ProgramData\PLSQL Developer\aalf.dat

Debug file
C:\Users\sgrad\AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 13\PlSqlDev.elf

Plug-Ins
*Active Query Builder (C:\Program Files (x86)\PLSQL Developer 13\PlugIns\ActiveQueryBuilder.dll)
*PL/SQL Documentation (plsqldoc) (C:\Program Files (x86)\PLSQL Developer 13\PlugIns\plsqldoc.dll)
(* is Active)

Aliases

Homes

DLLs
C:\ORACLE~2\bin\oci.dll

TNS File

Using
Home:
DLL:
OCI: not initialized

Process
Working Set = 104,808,448
Memory = 24,049,336
GDI Objects = 1350
User Objects = 361
Handles = 437

Monitors
PixelsPerInch = 96

Id = 0
PPI = 96
Primary = True
Handle = 65537
Left = 0
Top = 0
Width = 1920
Height = 1080

Id = 1
PPI = 96
Primary = False
Handle = 65539
Left = 1920
Top = -15
Width = 1280
Height = 1024

MainFormOnTaskbar = True
When you say "Oracle 12 installed" and "fresh install of Oracle 19" do you mean the full DB or the Instant Client?
Client
First I'll state that I have Admin rights on the laptop I use, though I've helped a co-worker get the same setup going on his machine and he didn't have Admin rights to his machine. And by that I mean as our company has his non-admin account defined as, not as your company may have setup.

We just downloaded the appropriate Basic Light Package and SQL*Plus Package from Oracle. For 32-bit, it would be https://www.oracle.com/database/technologies/instant-client/microsoft-windows-32-downloads.html We unzip the two files into a directory we created (I use C:\Oracle but anything can be setup where you have privs to create a folder). Edit Environment Variables to add in an ORACLE_HOME to point to C:\Oracle\instantclient_x_y, edit Path to add in this same directory, create a TNS_ADMIN entry to point to C:\Oracle (this is also where I have my tnsnames.ora) file. Start up PL/SQL Developer and it works. I make those changes in the System environment variables, but I suppose they should also work if made for just environment variables for my account.

For your issue, I don't think removing PL/SQL Developer is necessary, but maybe wiping all the Instant Client software and verifying all traces of them are gone.
Thank you @jhughes. I finally got your solution to work, but for others, I'd like to add that I had to add these entries (see bottom of post) to the params.ini file. For me, I did not have permission to edit the params.ini file located here: C:\Program Files (x86)\PLSQL Developer 13\params.ini

but I found I could edit the file here: C:\Users\[myUID]\AppData\Roaming\PLSQL Developer 13\params.ini

...and that did the trick.

PATH=C:\Oracle\instantclient_21_6
TNS_ADMIN=C:\Oracle\instantclient_21_6\network\admin
Good to know on the params.ini locations. I will admit my approach is a bit of a leftover from before Instant Client existed and you had a full client install on your machine. It works so I continue with it though as it is seamless when upgrading PL\SQL Developer to a new version on the same machine.
When you can't modify tnsnames.ora, you can test with database as this :
(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = TCP)(HOST = SERVER)(PORT = 1521))(CONNECT_DATA =(SID = SID) ))
in PSD screen logon
© Allround Automations forums