Message #### not found when attempting to start the listener, tnsping, or SQL*Plus

Problem

When attempting to start the listener you receive the following error.

[oracle@ora2 ~]$ lsnrctl start

LSNRCTL for Linux: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on 06-JUL-2010 10:38:43

Copyright (c) 1991, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Message 1070 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNSTNS-12545: Message 12545 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNS
 TNS-12560: Message 12560 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNS
  TNS-00515: Message 515 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNS
   Linux Error: 2: No such file or directory
[oracle@ora2 ~]$

Or you may receive the following when attempting to use tnsping.

[oracle@ora2 ~]$ tnsping proddb

TNS Ping Utility for Linux: Version 11.2.0.1.0 - Production on 06-JUL-2010 10:38:30

Copyright (c) 1997, 2009, Oracle.  All rights reserved.

Message 3511 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNSTNS-03505: Message 3505 not found; No message file for product=network, facility=TNS
[oracle@ora2 ~]$

Or you might have attempted a connection using SQL*Plus and received the following error.

[oracle@ora2 ~]$ sqlplus /nolog
Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
SP2-0667: Message file sp1<lang>.msb not found
SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory
[oracle@ora2 ~]$

Of the three errors messages, the message returned using SQL*Plus is the most descriptive and actually points to the problem causing all three.

The above mentioned utilities along with others included with the Oracle software need to have the ORACLE_HOME environment variable pointing to the proper location. In the above mentioned cases the utilities were unable access messages files. In particular the both the lsnrctl and tsnping were unable to access message files ORACLE_HOME/network/mesg and SQL*Plus as unable to access message files in ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/mesg.

The message files contain status and error message used by the various utilities provided by Oracle.

Solution

Set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to the proper location and retry the utility.

2 thoughts on “Message #### not found when attempting to start the listener, tnsping, or SQL*Plus”

  1. check $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/mesg dir. There should be 6 files. Please compare with working env and copy the missing files and will work.

  2. -bash-4.1$ export HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ sqlplus /nolog
    Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
    Message file sp1.msb not found
    SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/bin
    -bash-4.1$ sqlplus /nolog
    Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
    Message file sp1.msb not found
    SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ export ORACLE_HOME=/ora01/oraBin/ora10204/
    -bash-4.1$ cd $ORACLE_HOME
    -bash-4.1$ ls
    assistants demo jlib oc4j perl sqlplus
    bin diagnostics jre odbc plsql srvm
    ccr has ldap olap precomp sysman
    cdata hs lib OPatch racg tg4ifmx
    cfgtoollogs install lib32 opmn rdbms tg4ingr
    clone install.platform log oracore relnotes tg4sybs
    config instantclient32 md oradata root.sh tg4tera
    crs inventory mesg oraInst.loc root.sh.old uix
    css javavm mgw ord root.sh.old.1 wwg
    ctx jdbc network oui slax xdk
    dbs jdk nls owm sqlj
    -bash-4.1$ pwd
    /ora01/oraBin/ora10204
    -bash-4.1$ more install.platform
    [DEFAULT_SECTION]

    [Platform]
    ID=453

    -bash-4.1$ cd sqlplus
    -bash-4.1$ ls -la ./
    total 36
    drwxrwxrwx 9 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:03 .
    drwxrwxrwx 62 oracle dba 4096 May 14 16:03 ..
    drwxrwxrwx 4 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:23 admin
    drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:28 bin
    drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 12:59 doc
    drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:28 lib
    drwxrwxrwx 3 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:03 log
    drwxrwxrwx 2 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 12:59 mesg
    drwxrwxrwx 3 oracle dba 4096 Apr 11 13:03 opmn
    -bash-4.1$ ls bin
    isqlplus.ini
    -bash-4.1$ vi bin/isqlplus.ini
    -bash-4.1$ sqlplus /nolog
    Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus
    Message file sp1.msb not found
    SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory
    I have st it to the right location at least 30 times and env says it is correct

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