Patch cannot find a valid oraInst.loc file to locate Central Inventory. OPatch failed with error code 104.

OPatch cannot find a valid oraInst.loc file to locate Central Inventory. OPatch failed with error code 104.


$ opatch lsinventory
Invoking OPatch 11.1.0.8.1

Oracle Interim Patch Installer version 11.1.0.8.1
Copyright (c) 2010, Oracle Corporation. All rights reserved.

Oracle Home : /ora/app/product/11.1.0/db_1
Central Inventory : n/a
from :
OPatch version : 11.1.0.8.1
OUI version : 11.1.0.7.0
OUI location : /ora/app/product/11.1.0/db_1/oui
Log file location : n/a

Patch history file: /ora/app/product/11.1.0/db_1/cfgtoollogs/opatch/opatch_history.txt

OPatch cannot find a valid oraInst.loc file to locate Central Inventory.

OPatch failed with error code 104


Work around
--------------

OPTION 1:
a) Use the -invPtrLoc /etc/oraInst.loc
% opatch lsinventory -invPtrLoc /etc/oraInst.loc


OPTION 2:
a) Copy the oraInst.loc file from the /etc to /var/opt/oracle directory
b) Then run the opatch lsinventory
% opatch lsinventory

Doc ID 437026.1 ERROR :"OPatch cannot find a valid oraInst.loc file to locate Central Inventory.OPatch failed with error code 104"

I tried this workaround but it didn't worked. I found that both oraInst.loc and oraInventory were not there so, I had to create a new inventory which I did as following and afterwards I was able to apply the patch.

cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin
% ./runInstaller -silent -ignoreSysPrereqs -attachHome ORACLE_HOME="" ORACLE_HOME_NAME=""


For Eg :
ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0.3
ORACLE_HOME_NAME=OraDb10g_home1

% ./runInstaller -silent -ignoreSysPrereqs -attachHome ORACLE_HOME="/u01/app/oracle/product/10.2.0.3" ORACLE_HOME_NAME="OraDb10g_home1"