Thanks for all the replies...the issue was that I needed to apply patch 4516865 John ________________________________ From: Mercadante, Thomas F (LABOR) [mailto:Thomas.Mercadante@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] Sent: 14 May 2007 15:43 To: John Dunn; oracle-l Subject: RE: Error starting sqlplus John, When you type "env" on the $ prompt, do you see the Oracle environmental's defined? Secondly, try "cd'ing" to the $ORACLE_HOME/bin directory and running Sqlplus right from there and see what you get. This either an environmental problem, or you do not have permission to read the Oracle directories. Tom ________________________________ This transmission may contain confidential, proprietary, or privileged information which is intended solely for use by the individual or entity to whom it is addressed. If you are not the intended recipient, you are hereby notified that any disclosure, dissemination, copying or distribution of this transmission or its attachments is strictly prohibited. In addition, unauthorized access to this transmission may violate federal or State law, including the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1985. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by return e-mail and delete the transmission and its attachments. ________________________________ From: oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:oracle-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of John Dunn Sent: Monday, May 14, 2007 9:13 AM To: oracle-l Subject: Error starting sqlplus Have just installed Oracle 10.2 on AIX 5. When I run sqlplus as oracle it runs OK. When I run it as another user I get the message below I thought the environment variables were not set, but .profiles are identical in terms of Oracle values Any ideas? Error 6 initializing SQL*Plus Message file sp1<lang>.msb not found SP2-0750: You may need to set ORACLE_HOME to your Oracle software directory John