Unlock APEX admin user (when apxchpwd.sql doesn't work)

First we need to find the Apex admin accounts user_id. We do that with the following statement.
You might have two. Mine was the second one

select user_id from APEX_040200.WWV_FLOW_FND_USER where user_name = 'ADMIN' order by last_update_date desc;

Set a new password for the Apex Admin with the user_id we selected.

update APEX_040200.WWV_FLOW_FND_USER
set web_password = 'password'
where user_name = 'ADMIN'
and user_id = 56502607595642;
commit;

Then we unlock the Admin account with this statement.

alter session set current_schema = APEX_040200;
begin
wwv_flow_security.g_security_group_id := 10;
wwv_flow_fnd_user_api.UNLOCK_ACCOUNT('ADMIN');
commit;
end;

Install Oracle Data Modeler 4.0 on Ubuntu 14.04

This little HOW-TO will explain how to install Oracle's Data Modeler 4.0 on Ubuntu 14.04
First download the Oracle Data Modeler 4 rpm from Oracle's website http://www.oracle.com

Install alien to be able to convert .rpm packages to .deb

sudo apt-get install alien

Convert and install the Data Modeler 4 .rpm
This way you will be able to link the program on the launcher

sudo alien --scripts datamodeler-4.0.*.rpm 
sudo dpkg -i datamodeler_4.0.*.deb 

Fix an install bug and the startscript for Data Modeler so it won't crash on startup
Edit /usr/local/bin/datamodeler and add:
unset -v GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID to the first line in the start script.

sudo touch /opt/datamodeler/datamodeler/types/defaultdomains.xml
sudo chown username.username /opt/datamodeler/datamodeler/types/defaultdomains.xml
sudo vi /usr/local/bin/datamodeler

Done! Now you can find and start it in unity!

Install Oracle SQL Developer 4.0 on Ubuntu 14.04

This little HOW-TO will explain how to install Oracle's SQL Developer 4.0 on Ubuntu 14.04
First download the Oracle SQL developer 4 rpm from Oracle's website http://www.oracle.com

Install alien to be able to convert .rpm packages to .deb

sudo apt-get install alien

Convert and install the SQL developer 4 .rpm
This way you will be able to link the program on the launcher

sudo alien --scripts sqldeveloper-4.0.*.noarch.rpm 
sudo dpkg -i sqldeveloper_4.0.*.deb 

Fix the startscript for SQL developer so it won't crash on startup
Edit /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper and add:
unset -v GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID to the first line in the start script.

sudo vi /usr/local/bin/sqldeveloper

Done! Now you can find and start it in unity!

List current active users, sessions and programs in Oracle 11g

List current users, sessions and programs
(not background processes)

SELECT username, sid, serial#, program
FROM v$session
WHERE username is NOT NULL
ORDER BY logon_time;

Remove there WHERE clause if you want to include all background processes like pmon.

Install Oracle 11gR2 XE on Centos 6, Oracle Linux 6, RHEL 6

This little HOW-TO shows you how download and install the 64 bit version of Oracle 11gR2 XE APEX
on CentOS 6, Oracle Linux 6 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (x86_64)

Download Oracle 11gR2 XE from www.oracle.com
Open a terminal and become root, then go to the folder you downloaded the file to.

su - root
unzip oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm.zip
cd Disk1
rpm -Uvh oracle-xe-11.2.0-1.0.x86_64.rpm
/etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Thats it!

You can now stop and start the database with:

/etc/init.d/oracle-xe stop
/etc/init.d/oracle-xe start

You might also want to add the oracle binaries in your $PATH so you can access sqlplus, rman and other commands.
Open a terminal and become root. Then cut n' paste the script below into:
/etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

su - root
vi /etc/profile.d/oracle.sh

Enter this script:

if ! echo ${PATH} | /bin/grep -q /u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin ; then
PATH=/u01/app/oracle/product/11.2.0/xe/bin:${PATH}
fi

Save it, then close the terminal and open a new one for the change to take effect.
To access the webgui and/or apex:
Go go http://localhost:8080

How to get command-line history in SQL*PLUS with rlwrap

sql*plus does not have a command-line history function under Linux and Unix.
rlwrap is a readline wrapper for shell commands which uses input from the controlling terminal.
It adds a persistent input history for each command and supports user-defined completion.

You can install it via yum if you have enabled the EPEL repository.
Or you can download the sources from here
Then open a terminal and go to the catalog you downloaded it to

If you have the EPEL repository enabled
Open a terminal

su - root
yum install rlwrap

Otherwise you do like this. Again in the folder you downloaded the file to.
Open a terminal

su - root
tar -zxvf rlwrap-0.37.tar.gz
./configure
make
make install

Now you can call sqlplus like this:

rlwrap sqlplus user/password@sid

I also recommend creating an alias like this

alias sqlp =”rlwrap sqlplus”

Now you can start the wrapped sqlplus with sqlp and have command history with the ↑ and ↓ keys on your keyboard.