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APEX Installation in CDB$ROOT Failing Due to catcon.pl Access Issue (Oracle 21c XE)

Lielina HaileMay 6 2025 — edited May 7 2025

Hi Oracle Team,

I am encountering persistent issues while installing Oracle APEX into the CDB$ROOT container of my Oracle Database 21c Express Edition (XE) instance on Linux. I would appreciate your guidance in resolving the problem.

Environment Details:

  • Database Version: Oracle Database 21c Express Edition Release 21.0.0.0.0 - Production (21.3.0.0.0)
  • OS User: gisadmin (non-root)
  • Installation Target: CDB$ROOT (not a PDB)
  • APEX Installation Script: /opt/apex/apexins.sql SYSAUX SYSAUX TEMP /i/

Issue Summary:

While running apexins.sql as SYSDBA from CDB$ROOT, the installation initiates correctly and PL/SQL procedures complete without syntax errors. However, the installer then attempts to use catcon.pl to propagate changes to all containers, and fails with the following message:

arduino

CopyEdit

Can't open perl script "/opt/oracle/product/21c/dbhomeXE/rdbms/admin/catcon.pl": (null)

Yet, the script does exist and is located at the correct path. I verified this with:

bash

CopyEdit

sudo find /opt/oracle -name catcon.pl

And confirmed:

swift

CopyEdit

/opt/oracle/product/21c/dbhomeXE/rdbms/admin/catcon.pl

I also attempted the following:

  • Exporting environment variables (ORACLE_HOME, PERL5LIB, PATH)
  • Confirmed perl -v is functional
  • Checked and changed file ownership and permissions on catcon.pl
  • Tried invoking as oracle user and root, but consistently hit the same issue

Even though the script completes with:

Installation completed. Log files for each container can be found in: apexins_cdb*.log

The expected APEX schemas (e.g., APEX_230100, FLOWS_FILES, etc.) are not created.

Request:

Can you help me determine:

  1. Why catcon.pl is not executing even with correct permissions and environment setup?
  2. Is there a documented or supported workaround to install APEX fully in CDB$ROOT for Oracle XE 21c?
  3. Is manually installing APEX into each PDB the only option in XE environments?

I’ve attached relevant logs and screenshots for your reference. I appreciate any guidance you can provide.

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Added on May 6 2025
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