database is 11g R2 on Linux.
In short I can not use SQL Dev against this database because the queries it uses to populate its interface take up to 15 minutes to return.
I began this question in the SQL Developer forum. Please see
10317792
As can be seen in my investigations, the recycle bin was the culprit.
The DBA then deactivated the recyclebin using:
ALTER SYSTEM SET recyclebin = OFF DEFERRED;
the DB was then bounced, and he then ran:
purge dba_recyclebin;
The DBA said that after all this, the table SYS.RECYCLEBIN$ still had over 57K rows.
the SQL Developer problem remains.
How can I actually turn off the recycle bin so I can use SQL Developer?