install has detected an invalid Active EMD Home configured as </some/path/>

Question

"Possible cause for this error may be a previous installation of Oracle Application Server that was not completely installed or deinstalled. Please perform a deinstall on that home."

I believe I have deinstalled it, together with the database. And when I use runInstaller and choose deinstall, it doesn't show up.

Asking google yields 6 or 7 results, and all but one seems to be from the same person asking in different forums.

Running

find . -type f |xargs grep "10.1.2"|grep -v "./logs/"

in the oraInventory folder tells me this:

Binary file ./Contents/OracleHomesList.ser matches
Binary file ./Contents/PatchesList2.ser matches
Binary file ./Contents/CompsList2.ser matches
...
Binary file ./sessionContext.ser matches
./backup/2009-06-21_12-38-20AM/ContentsXML/inventory.xml:<HOME NAME="oracleas1" LOC="/some/folder/10.1.2/as_1" TYPE="O" IDX="2"/>

I'd rather not edit binary oracle files without instructions, or wipe the disk, so if someone has an idea, I am listening.

(In case anyone wonders how I got into this I guess it might be because I uninstalled forms and reports (32 bit) together with the database unsin the database uninstaller (64 bit).)

Answer 1

Fixed for now by pointing inventory_loc in oraInst.loc to another location.

Answer 2

Have you physically deleted the directory corresponding to the deinstalled EMD home? I know the agent doesn't like it if you try to reinstall without doing this.