If anyone want to have fun, just run this simple testcase: use your 11.2.0.2 rdbms binaries (linux and hp-ux tested, but others will also work). create a small pfile: db_name=test db_block_size=2048 db_create_file_dest=/tmp set any ORACLE SID and run create database character set al32utf8; I'd like to see your results ;-) (I can give some more infos, do not waste time for investigations) have a nice weekend, Martin