Smaller Footprint Oracle Client Software

Do you need to bundle Oracle Client Software with your application and want something leaner than the Oracle Instant Client? Do you need a quick and simple way to make a native Oracle 10 connection from your Windows PC?

Here’s an option that will provide Oracle 10 native connectivity (not ODBC) under Windows 32-bit using as few Oracle files as possible. Compressed size is 10 Megs compared to 17 Megs for the Oracle Client Basic Lite package.

Oracle10Client.zip

To install, you simply unzip the contents. The oracle key file contains a registry path that must correspond to the folder in which you have installed the client software. In the zip file, bin / oracle.key has

SOFTWARE\ORACLE\myOracle10Client

and the oracle10.reg file has

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Oracle\myOracle10Client]
“Oracle_Home”=”C:\\Program Files\\Oracle\\myOracle10Client”

You can use the oracle10.reg file to create the required registry entry.

You should update these files to point to the location in which you install the client software.

You can assemble this distribution yourself by paring down an Oracle 10 Client install to just:

BIN/
NETWORK/
RDBMS/
nls/
oracle10.reg
oracore/

./BIN:
ORASLAX10.DLL
TNSPING.EXE
oci.dll
oracle.key
oraclient10.dll
oracommon10.dll
oracore10.dll
orageneric10.dll
orahasgen10.dll
oraldapclnt10.dll
oran10.dll
orancds10.dll
orancrypt10.dll
oranhost10.dll
oranl10.dll
oranldap10.dll
oranls10.dll
orannzsbb10.dll
oranro10.dll
orantcp10.dll
orantns10.dll
oraocr10.dll
oraocrb10.dll
oraplp10.dll
orapls10.dll
orasnls10.dll
orasql10.dll
oraunls10.dll
orauts.dll
oravsn10.dll
oraxml10.dll

./NETWORK:
ADMIN/
mesg/

./NETWORK/ADMIN:
SAMPLE/
sqlnet.ora
tnsnames.ora

./NETWORK/ADMIN/SAMPLE:
SQLNET.ORA
TNSNAMES.ORA

./NETWORK/mesg:
tnsus.msb

./RDBMS:
mesg/

./RDBMS/mesg:
ocius.msb
oraus.msb

./nls:
data/

./nls/data:
lx00001.nlb
lx10001.nlb
lx1boot.nlb
lx20001.nlb
lx200b2.nlb
lx20367.nlb
lx207d0.nlb

./oracore:
zoneinfo/

./oracore/zoneinfo:
readme.txt
timezlrg.dat
timezone.dat

Configure TortoiseSVN for Auto-Logon Using Putty

Getting TortoiseSVN to stop prompting for a password can be a bit challenging. Here’s a step by step solution using Putty culled together from various sources on the internet.

TortoiseSVN Auto Logon

Overcoming SonicFire Pro Sluggishness

If you use SmartSound’s SonicFire Pro for your royalty-free music, you might notice long delays when you preview music in the Maestro. On a 2.4GHz quad I was seeing pauses up to five seconds when I selected a song. I had installed the latest version of QuickTime, 7.4.5, to eliminate that as the culprit. I also noticed a strange pause on startup in which the program froze for a couple seconds before finishing painting its window.

I contacted SmartSound about this, and without providing anymore information than I’ve mentioned already, the tech said:

This is an issue between the QuickTime player and your Intel Matrix RAID controller driver. These Intel Matrix cards are included in many new PCs from Dell, HP, etc and even if you are not using a RAID, the driver needs to be updated. If you need help finding the driver, let me know some details about your machine and I will see if I can find it for you.

Very impressive that he seemed to know something about my computer. I hadn’t mentioned that I had a RAID controller. Indeed, I do. Obviously, they have seen this particular error before.

So, after poking around on Dell’s site I found the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Driver, and installed it. Voilà! SonicFire Pro runs like butter now!

Great job, SmartSound!

Note: To install the driver, you update the driver of the RAID controller in the Device Manager by pointing it to the unzipped folder.