[Placeholder for my Oracle related X window notes] * Other than Cygwin, what other free X window is there? Many. But I like XMing. Easy to install and easy to launch. Go to https://sourceforge.net/projects/xming/ Click the big Download button or just access this link directly http://sourceforge.net/project/downloading.php?group_id=156984&filename=Xming-6-9-0-31-setup.exe Just Run (or Save) to install. After installation, make sure it was not automatically launched; if you see a big X icon in the system tray, right click and Exit. Then go to console (command promot) and run it as:[note] C:\"Program Files"\Xming\Xming.exe -ac -multiwindow -clipboard or if your Windows is 64-bit: C:\"Program Files (x86)"\Xming\Xming.exe -ac -multiwindow -clipboard Do not run it by clicking the X icon on the desktop; it will miss the -ac option. There's no need to run xhost+. To save typing, I create a file x.bat at C:\ with these lines in it (append " (x86)" to "Program Files" as needed): setlocal cd /d C:\Program Files\Xming start /b Xming.exe -ac -multiwindow -clipboard ipconfig | findstr "IP Address" endlocal and I type \x at command prompt to run it. The last line (before endlocal) shows the IP to be used for export DISPLAY later. [note] If you're security sensitive, you should not pass -ac to Xming.exe. That option disables access control. Instead, add a line to the file x0.hosts specifying the machine on which you want to run an X client, such as dbca or runInstaller. Suppose that machine has IP address 12.34.56.78, x0.hosts will look like localhost 12.34.56.78 Then run C:\"Program Files"\Xming\Xming.exe -multiwindow -clipboard * Where's the log file? If you're on Windows 7, check C:\Users\\AppData\Local\Temp\Xming.0.log. Or just right click on the big X icon in the system tray and View Log. * Any issue with XMing? Older version of XMing may not have some essential fonts downloaded. For example, Oracle note "DBCA/DBUA APPEARS TO HANG AFTER CLICKING FINISH BUTTON [ID 727290.1]" reports a problem where the workaround (if you insist on using XMing) is to install the missing fonts, from e.g. http://hivelocity.dl.sourceforge.net/project/xming/Xming-fonts/7.5.0.47/Xming-fonts-7-5-0-47-setup.exe One problem sometimes I have is that if the GUI window of the client (e.g. Firefox) shows blank or partially blank page, I have to move to a smaller monitor (I have multiple monitors connected to my laptop). One common problem in using X server is the port 6000 is already taken. You need to close that program first, perhaps another X server. This is not XMing's fault, but documented here for reference. * Any tips about performance? XMing's performance is good. As with any X window system, when X is running, you don't want to place the mouse cursor on the X app and unnecessarily move mouse around because X tries to communicate between X server and client each pixel you move across. If curious, watch it with xev. If your PC is on a very slow network, you may get better response by moving the X server to a Windows box that has a faster network connection to the X client (where you run an X program, such as Oracle Universal Installer). Then you launch remote terminal (mstsc) from your PC to connect to that Windows box. * Is X window required to install Oracle server or client software on UNIX/Linux from Windows using silent install? According to Oracle Note:435680.1 (dated 2008) and forum thread 259077.999 (dated 2001) and 243411.995 (2002), it looks like the answer is Yes. If you can get it to work without X, please let me know (yong321@yahoo.com). If you really hate to have X window, you can install Oracle on one box (with X window) and copy the installed software tree to a target box. * How about creating a database without dbca? Dbca requires X windows. But this functionality can be completely replaced with SQL commands. The following is the minimum sets of commands to create a database: echo "db_name=orcl10g" > $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/initorcl10g.ora #but it's better to also set sga_max_size to a large value export ORACLE_SID=orcl10g sqlplus / as sysdba startup nomount create database orcl10g controlfile reuse maxlogfiles 5 maxlogmembers 5 maxloghistory 100 maxdatafiles 100 maxinstances 1 datafile '/oradata/orcl10g/system01.dbf' size 300m default temporary tablespace temp tempfile '/oradata/orcl10g/temp1.dbf' size 100m logfile group 1 ('/oradata/orcl10g/redo01.log') size 5m, group 2 ('/oradata/orcl10g/redo02.log') size 5m undo tablespace undotbs1 datafile '/oradata/orcl10g/undotbs1.dbf' size 50m character set AL32UTF8 national character set AL16UTF16 sysaux datafile '/oradata/orcl10g/sysaux.dbf' size 100m / @?/rdbms/admin/catalog.sql @?/rdbms/admin/catproc.sql @?/rdbms/admin/catexp.sql A database thus created is absolutely minimum. Dba_registry will have 3 (?) lines. To add Java e.g., follow Doc 1112983.1, which also has links to other docs to install other components, Spatial, OLAP, etc. * Other than installation, is there any other use of X on an Oracle server (or client)? For Oracle, not really. But you can use X window to allow a remote user to login as a given user without giving him password or configuring sudo or equivalent. The remote user, perhaps a contractor working from his home, runs X server such as XMing. You export DISPLAY to his desktop and type xterm as oracle (or anyuser). He'll get oracle (or anyuser)'s terminal. If you do this, type xterm -sb -sl 2000 instead so he has a sliding bar with 2000 lines in window buffer. * Does the Oracle server need to be at runlevel 5? Not at all. The Oracle server doesn't need X except X client programs (under /usr/X*/bin), even during your Oracle server installation. It's almost always a bad idea to set default runlevel to 5 in /etc/inittab. * Is character-based terminal install using UNIX curses still available? I think it was discontinued as of Oracle8i or 8. I can't find the official document. * What's wrong with Cygwin? You can get it installed in less than 30 minutes if you're lucky, i.e., connected to a mirror site out of many that works right and downloads fast, correctly identified all X related files, and has no error in the middle of installation. If you just use X from Cygwin, as many people do, this bulky software package is not worth the trouble. In the 21st century, it's hard to find a Windows program that requires such archaic installation procedure. And remember to rename (or remove) setup.exe in your temporary download folder because it's such a generic filename and you would forget what setup.exe wants to set up.