the low down on oracle, database adapter, rails oracle connectivity

Oracle instant client set up in Ubuntu

yes, I am unfortunately enough to have to connect to an Oracle database from Rails, and I hate the gut of it.  But here are the steps of making it work.  These steps are for Ubuntu Lucid
These instructions are for ruby-oci8 > 2.03, if you have to use an older version of oci8 you are in for some major grief

1. install oracle instant client, grab the basic, sql, devel rpm here
  http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxsoft-082809.htmlhttp://www.oracle.com/technetwork/topics/linuxsoft-082809.html
2.  apt-get install libaio1 apt-get install libaio1
3.  install alien, which converts a rpm file into a .deb file
    apt-get install alien apt-get install alien
4.  convert the rpm into debian package 
 alien oracle-instantclient11.1-basic-11.1.0.7.0-1.i386.rpm
 alien oracle-instantclient11.1-devel-11.1.0.7.0-1.i386.rpm
 alien oracle-instantclient11.1-sqlplus-11.1.0.7.0-1.i386.rpm

5. install the debian packages
dpkg -i oracle-instantclient11.1-basic_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.deb oracle-instantclient11.1-devel_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.deb  oracle-instantclient11.1-sqlplus_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.debdpkg -i oracle-instantclient11.1-basic_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.deb oracle-instantclient11.1-devel_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.deb  oracle-instantclient11.1-sqlplus_11.1.0.7.0-2_i386.deb

6. your package should be installed in /usr/lib/oracle/11.2
7. set 2 ENV variable in your bash file
  LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/lib/oracle/11.2/client/lib
  ORACLE_HOME=/usr/lib/oracle

8. sudo mdkir -p /usr/lib/oracle/network/admin
9. add tns stuff to tnsname.ora in /usr/lib/oracle/network/admin

10. done