Giovanni, In your case, a process stack trace may help. On Linux, unless you download and install pstack from somewhere on the Internet, you can use gdb assuming you installed that. gdb `which oracle` [the server process pid] bt detach exit Type the commands quickly because a debugger attached process is stopped. Once you get the stack, go to Metalink and look up the few functions near the top but below the error handlers (usually named like *err* or *dmp*). Yong Huang -- //www.freelists.org/webpage/oracle-l