I am looking for the master installation CD BaanIVc4 or BaanERP for Windows NT/2000 with a working installer set for Oracle8i (Oracle 8.1.x). I have tried several (older CD's) already but the Baan installer always crashes out complaining about an 'unknown' Oracle version.

This happens due to a corrupted previous install not working correctly. You have to remove all Oracle bits from the registry and try to get rid of all the files that may still be lying around from the 'stalled' installation.

Doesn't sound too good to me: :( deleting Oracle bits from the registry. The big Q is: what Oracle bits of course. I would be very surprised that any previous Baan installer programs would have left a trace in the registry as they didn't get as far as creating the database!

If I have a master CD with Oracle 8.0.4 support, do you expact that to work with Oracle8i as well?

Any suggestions to which registry entries I have to delete without messing up my Oracle 8.1.7 installation?

If you already have a working version of Oracle on the system then don't start fiddling with the registry. I thought it might be a clean install, but obviously not.

There maybe some problems with 8i if you have a version already on.

Yep, the idea is to install on top of an existing Oracle 8i installation. Pity you cannot order any CD's anymore from Baan :(

Thats more of an upgrade then. Thats a tricky one.

I see from other posts that you are trying to get the new porting sets as well.

Personnally, I would install on a seperate machine, fix the upgrade issues, get the porting set, log errors and see what happens to your data. Not the best solution but one that works (and will not effect your live enviroment in the mean time)

Believe me, I have tried to do things like this in the past (Informix is a right problem with it), so I can give you the problems but not always the solutions.

I have successfully loaded Baan IVc and BaanERP with oracle 7 support on a Oracle 8 database. But there are two problems you need to be concerned with. 1) makesure that you can tnsping the instance you are creating 2) make sure that net8 is configured so you can connect to your instance. 3) using svrmgr make sure that when you log in that you are connected to your instance by default. I had both a 4c4 and 5b instance. whenever I tried to use svrmgr to connect to the 5b, it was actually by default going to the 4c. There is a parameter called "local" that you need to set in your system control panel for env. variables to your instance name. This is the one baan creates that is 4 characters long.

If it gets to the end and says databse not on (error 510?) and the event log says database not on, its a unix goof. Yes I said unix not nt. Once the tabledef6.1 file is created, and the install is still going, before it starts to load the database, change the first slash from "\" to "/" in your oracle home directory setting. on both lines (or one if there is only one in your version). This is a unix leftover that has popped up on NT.

Another UNIX to NT pop over. This happens far to often for my liking. It reminds me of when I had to talk to support about a problem and they had me working whilst on the phone and started to explain the UNIX solution..... This was after I had said that I was at an NT server and would need to just bring up the command prompt to type things in.

And how many times have I been told to run rc.stop to bring the server down.... AARRRRGGGHHHHHH

Hey,

I am no UNIX defector :) Just would like to get Baan up and running to play with on my home PC.

Regarding Toolswizard's comments:

I am trying to install Baan on a pre-created database, with all Net8 stuff configured correcly. The point is that the Baan Installer program only mentions support for Oracle 8.0.4 and crashes out a bit later on saying could not determine Oracle version. I don't get to the stage of creating the initial users etc.

AHHHHHHHH! OK let me take a wild guess before we go further. Your Oracle install is on a seperate machine, and you prebuilt the database. Is that correct?

Yes: the database was pre-created because I want to get all my tablespaces right from first go

No: it's all running on 1 server: Windows 2000 Advanced Server SMP

I think my CD had portingset 6.1c.03.02 or something... The Oracle8 function is added into Baan but the portingset does not have the correct driver support for it...

What about copying the CD to disk and do a replacement of the portingset for a 6.1c.06.01 or later?

Yup.

Patrick, doing what Victor says should work :)

Just replace the Porting Set in the Installer program with later binaries which do work.

That sounds interesting. I have an MSSQL Server 7.0 on NT at home. I tried it on W2K but couldn't get the SPs in because of the old "/" - "\" issue.

A new Oracle installation would be preferable - and if we can't get that Linux Porting Set - Oracle on W2K Advanced Server would be OK.

I heard that a fix is available for Windows 2000 problem of the slash problem. Baan is now certified for Windows 2000, soit should work fine... you just have to look for what fix and where has it been applied (portingset / standard objects / libraries ?)

Baan was one of the first products to get the Windows 2000 seal of approval, and yet now still has issues. What with server problems and don't mention the client problems. I would not surprise me if they just sent off a form with a cheque made payable to 'Microsoft Usable Guarantee (MUG)' and got the certificate back after 28 days.

I have been playing with the installation files from my Baan installation CD for NT and I found something interesting:

The .Z files are InstallShield compressed files. Winzip, compress, gunzip, etc do not read them. Searching in the web I found the icomp.exe (search for "Icompx the InstallSHIELD de/compressor " in google...) programs that compresses/uncompresses InstallShield in/from format.

It works. You can uncompress the file BSHELL.Z and see that it is a normal portingset (in my case, the CD contains portingset 6.1c.03.01).
So, just get your new portingset from Baan, check what format it is (uncompress if needed) and use the icomp.exe to generate the corresponding .Z file, copy the CD installation to yout disk, replace the .Z file(s) you need and up you go, updated portingset !!!

Note1: I haven't tried, but I think Patrick will do the honours :D
Note2: Be carefull with portingset 6.1c.06.01 because the installation will use bdbpost to insert data into the database and it seems this one had compatability issues - solved in 6.1c.06.02.

I'm off to download that little proggie right now! It'll come in handy for a few places I know

My issues were that I was loading a pre installed database on a seperate server. The database was 8i but the old cd I had only supported 7. So I put a dummy key in the registry showing a oracle 7 instance called baan. The installation only looks for the key to show you which database is already installed. This was on NT4, so 2000 may have other issues. Can you supply more information as to exactly when you get this error in the install. What the last 2 steps were prior to the error?

I tried the portingset switch trick but no luck. Apparently the check for the Oracle version is coded with the installer program well before the portingset gets unpacked.

When running the installer I do:

* select new environment

* select Database type: Oracle 7/Oracle 8.0.4

Straight after that I get the error displayed in the image. I guess the only possible workaround is the registry hack. Toolswizard, could you publish the details for this?

Couldn't you delete the Oracle 8i, install c4 on Oracle 8.0.x and then upgrade to 8i? -> *that would be the easiest way.

Hemm, changing the porting set, then do toolswizard hacking idea seems to be interesting. Have fun trying.

That would be bad... I have a good Oracle 8.1.7 setup running now and don't feel like downgrading it just for the sake of. Thanks for the info though tdiciple. :)

Anyone who has any idea whether BaanERP would be installable on Oracle8i on NT/W2K?

Baan Vb would not be installable on Oracle 8i, but Baan Vc would be installable in Oracle 8i.

Both of these works the same way in Windows NT and 2000.

Well mmm, then this is my final attempt: is there anyone who can get me a copy of the BaanERP 5.0c master installation CD for Windows NT/W2K?

I got the same problem (Can't detect Oracle server version) on Windows NT with Oracle 8.1.7. Since it was a brand new server, I uninstalled Oracle 8.1.7 and installed Oracle 8.0.4. Unfortunately, I got the same error message. I selected the database type to be "Oracle 7/Oracle 8.0.4". :confused:

I will try to find a work around or a fix this week and let you know the result, hoping to get a good solution.

Tough!

I'm not sure if Baan released an installer CD for Baan IV c4 on Oracle 8i. Most of our older CDs only have drivers and utilities up to Oracle 7. Even the tools tables that contains the supported databases do not have Oracle 8i (Explains your error). So for the technique to work on Baan IV c4, you need to change the contents of bin, lib, and api (at least). You might also need to replace the bw with a later version because the older version in the installer might not work properly with the newer porting set. There is also a need to add the Oracle 8i record in the dump of the tools tables containing the supported database or maybe you can find a way to put it there during the install process.

It's possible that an installer for Baan Vc with Oracle 8i support working is available from Baan at this time.

I'd be interested to know how you would finally be able to accomplish this.

Cheers!

Ok, Finally I was able to get the install working!

Here's what I did:

I ignored the error message about the Oracle version, then the installation went fine until the load of company 000.

At this point, the installation is done, but the company 000 tables are empty.

I loaded the latest portingset from Baan and changed the string "*:(" to "*:oracle8(" in tabledef6.1.

I restarted the load of company 000 manually, and it worked. The problem is really the portingset and the string in tabledef6.1.

I installed service packs up to 4. I'll do the rest tomorrow and as for now, everything runs ok.

Yannick

I have been receiving email alerts and see that this post is still alive.

In my previous replies I stated that my problem was that I have oracle installed on one machine and wanted to install Baan on a second, without installing Baan on the Oracle Server first.

All baan looks for is a key in the registery to find oracle. After creating my database manually on the oracle server, and setting up oracle client networking on the Baan server, I added the key to the registry. The answer to the million dollar question "What is the key to add?" is /HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/OracleServiceXXXX
where XXXX is the 4 character Oracle/Baan database name. I use OB5B for XXXX to represent Oracle/Baan/Version/Release. Then give this key a string value of DisplayName "OracleServiceXXXX". This will then show up as an exsisting database in baan. Remember you have to create the empty database first according to the create the database manually steps in the installation manual.

Once Baan sees the XXXX database, it really doesn't care what version it is as long as Oracle is a newer release than the baan drivers. I have successfully installed Baan 4a with oracle 7 support on a oracle 8i database.

Well I checked my registry and mentioned key entry *was* already there. The instance also did show up in the list of possible databases to install into. I have tried to create a new instance, checked the key but now the instance name doesn't even show up anymore in the short list. Seems like my registry is somewhat polluted by the previous aborted installations. :(

Patrick,

I created my instance on a second machine, manually. The only database programs I have on the Baan server, were the client/network programs. I did the usual tnsping, sqlmanager, type of checking to make sure I could get to the instance from the baan server to the oracle server. I will be trying this again with baan 5c soon (not in the next 2 days). Please tell me again what version of the database, and version of Baan you are trying to install.

Bill Prokurat
toolswizard

Hi Bill,

I am running all on 1 W2K server. The Oracle version is 8.1.7 with manually created instances and Net8 configurations. The Baan installer CD is from one of the very first BaanERP 5.0b versions. I am starting to think that there may lay a problem as well. I'd like to try it with a BaanERP 5.0c CD but can't my hands on one :(

Patrick,

I seem to remember that there was 1 trick that helped. I'll give details but don't remember the exact variable names. There is a variable on NT that is the equivilant of 2task on unix for oracle. It's name was something local or local something, I'll have to look. When set it allows svrmgr to login automaticall to the correct instance. If you only have one instance on your oracle install, I don't think you need to set it. If I come across it in my notes i'll let you know.

I feel the real problem is that the baan installer is not able to recognize the Oracle 8i installation on the NT/2000. Not to do with previous installation or stuff. This problem, in my observation occurs only in Windows NT/2000 environment. BaaN installer looks for the registry entries of Oracle8i in registry to find the version. I have heard that I editing the registry entries for Oracle in registry and making the baan installer believe it to be just Oracle 8 will solve the problem. Now if someone knows which key to edit, pls let me know. All I can say is, it is done. Can be done. Cheers

Hi,

Victor has said something about copying the CD to disk and do a replacement of the portingset for a 6.1c.06.01 or later.

I know that this can be done on UNIX, by overwritting the contents of the directory

<master tape>/ln.0000/bse/.....

I have seen a Baan document about how to do this on UNIX.

I never tried this on NT/Win 2000. Can anyone give me more information about how to do this? (which is the path, tricks, etc)

Thanks,

Renegade,

I don't know how to put links into this message so the best I can do is to tell you if you look earlier into this thread I did post the key that you need to put in to show baan that the database name exists. Doing so you need to have created the database manually.

One way of forcing BaaN to detect the registry is to make an entry in registry directly at HKEYLOCALMACHINE/SOFTWARE/ORACLE

tHE KEY WOULD BE

RDBMS80:REG_SZ:"ORACLE HOME PATH"

Then baan detects the database