Oracle XE on Ubuntu

Oracle provides a debian repository at http://oss.oracle.com/debian, containing only Oracle 10g Express Edition (XE) packages.
To see these packages, add this line to /etc/apt/sources.list file:

deb http://oss.oracle.com/debian unstable main non-free

Next, you will need to add the GPG key.

wget http://oss.oracle.com/el4/RPM-GPG-KEY-oracle -O- | sudo apt-key add -

As root, type:

apt-get update

To install the XE database server, apt-get 'oracle-xe-universal' or 'oracle-xe' (Western European support only).

apt-get install oracle-xe-universal oracle-xe-client

Don't forget to add the hostname to the /etc/hosts file

As root, type:

/etc/init.d/oracle-xe configure

Change the listner conf:

/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server/network/admin/listener.ora

Create user:
Change into the oracle user and setup the environment:

su oracle
ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle/xe/app/oracle/product/10.2.0/server
PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
export ORACLE_HOME
export ORACLE_SID=XE
export PATH

Connect to the database:

sqlplus sys as sysdba

And actually create the user:

CREATE USER <NEW_USER> IDENTIFIED BY <NEW_USER_PASS> DEFAULT TABLESPACE users TEMPORARY TABLESPACE temp QUOTA UNLIMITED ON users;

Change the user's permissions:

GRANT CREATE session, CREATE table, CREATE view, CREATE procedure, CREATE synonym, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE TYPE, CREATE MATERIALIZED VIEW, CREATE DATABASE LINK,Debug Any Procedure,Debug Connect Session TO <NEW_USER>;

Adjust the user's quota:

ALTER USER <NEW_USER> QUOTA UNLIMITED ON USERS;

Start Oracle server in UNIX

Type the following command, enter:

$ su - oracle
Now use lsnrctl command to start service (usually located at /home/oracle/oracle/product/10.2.0/db_1/bin directory):
$ lsnrctl start
Next start database:
$ dbstart

Stop Oracle service in UNIX

To stop Oracle servuice type following two commands:

$ lsnrctl stop
$ dbshut

HTTP Interface

Now for creating users / schema / ... you have a nice http interface to do it :http://localhost:8080/apex/

If you want to access this remotely, you may need to use a SSH port forwarding:

ssh -L 8080:localhost:8080 user@IP_of_your_server

It is also possible to use the administration console remotely, even if it's not recommended for security reasons (better using SSH port forwarding as previously said):

sqlplus sys as sysdba
EXEC DBMS_XDB.SETLISTENERLOCALACCESS(FALSE);