Installing ...

With 'System > Administration > Users and Groups' I created the following users / groups:
user: oracle / groups: dba (primary), oracle
user: applmgr / groups: dba (primary), oracle

Than I created the root dir:
#mkdir /d01
#cd /d01
# mkdir -m 775 -p ebs/R12VIS/inst
# chown -R oracle:dba ebs

In the past I already build the staging area, so I started rapidwiz :
# cd [my staging area]
# cd startCD/Disk1/rapidwiz
# ./rapidwiz

I used Port Pool 0 and changed the Base Directory of the Database to /d01/ebs/R12VIS and fir the Application to /d01/ebs/R12VIS/inst.

And now it is 23:30 and rapidwiz is already running for 3 hours and it indicates it is on 22% .... I am sure it has also to do whith the device type (dynamicaly growing). But tomorrow I need my laptop for work. I will close all other programs to free up some memmory, but I am afraid that won't help much. I limitted the memmory of my virtual machine to 1536 MB (out of 4 GB). Besides, this is all about I/O ... Keep on working, I am going to sleep.

Next Try

A few months ago I started installing Oracle EBS in my Virtual Machine, but soon my harddisk started spinning. The virtual harddisk was stored on my external device, but the snapshot file was still stored on my C drive and it was enormously growing. So, my Virtual Machine crashed totally. Now I am trying it again. On May 24th, I will visit an OBUG session about APEX and EBS in Vilvoorde (Belgium). I hope to be able to experiment some things before that date.

I removed Oracle's Virtual Box from my laptop and downloaded the latest version from http://www.virtualbox.org/ (VirtualBox 4.0.6). Installation was easier than in the previous version: just keep clicking 'next'. I also installed the 'VirtualBox 4.0.6 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack', available on the same download page. Essential for me I guess, because I am using my an external disk drive using USB 2.0. I will remove the page with instructions How To Install Virtual Box from my blog. That page is outdated and now installation is so simple ...

After installation of Oracle's Virtual Box, I created a new virtual machine (MyEBS.R12):
- type harddisk is now dynamically expanding storage (max 300 GB);
- all virtual machines (including snapshots) are now stored on the external disk drive (Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager: File > Preferences > tab: General - Default Machine Folder);
- since VirtualBox release 4, installation of the Guest Additions (necessary for sharing disks with the host) also has changed (step B.4):

A.0 empty disk drive: Devices > CD/DVD devices > Remove disk from virtual drive
A.1 make VBoxGuestAdditions.iso accessible: Devices > CD/DVD devices > Enterprise-R5-U5-Server-x86_64-dvd.iso
A.2 open a terminal
A.3 cd /media/Enterprise Linux dvd 20100405/Server
A.4 rpm -i --nodeps --replacefiles xxx where xxx stands for
gcc-4.1.2-48.el5.x86_64.rpm
gcc-c++-4.1.2-48.el5.x86_64.rpm
glibc-2.5-49.i686.rpm 1)
glibc-2.5-49.x86_64.rpm 1)
glibc-common-2.5-49.x86_64.rpm 1)
glibc-devel-2.5-49.i386.rpm
glibc-devel-2.5-49.x86_64.rpm
libgcc-4.1.2-48.el5.i386.rpm 1)
libgcc-4.1.2-48.el5.x86_64.rpm 1)
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-48.el5.i386.rpm
libstdc++-devel-4.1.2-48.el5.x86_64.rpm
libstdc++-4.1.2-48.el5.i386.rpm 1)
libstdc++-4.1.2-48.el5.x86_64.rpm 1)
make-3.81-3.el5.x86_64.rpm 1)
gdbm-1.8.0-26.2.1.i386.rpm
gdbm-1.8.0-26.2.1.x86_64.rpm 1)
libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.i386.rpm
libXp-1.0.0-8.1.el5.x86_64.rpm
libaio-0.3.106-5.i386.rpm 1)
libaio-0.3.106-5.x86_64.rpm 1)
libgomp-4.4.0-6.el5.x86_64.rpm
sysstat-7.0.2-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
util-linux-2.13-0.52.el5_4.1.x86_64.rpm 1)
compat-libstdc++-296-2.96-138.i386.rpm 1)
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61.i386.rpm 1)
compat-libstdc++-33-3.2.3-61.x86_64.rpm 1)
elfutils-libelf-devel-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
elfutils-libelf-devel-static-0.137-3.el5.x86_64.rpm
libaio-devel-0.3.106-5.x86_64.rpm
unixODBC-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11-7.1.i386.rpm
unixODBC-2.2.11-7.1.x86_64.rpm
unixODBC-devel-2.2.11-7.1.x86_64.rpm
kernel-headers-2.6.18-194.el5.x86_64.rpm
kernel-devel-2.6.18-194.el5.x86_64.rpm (not mentioned in [ID 761566.1]).
1): were allready installed (message).
A.6 exit

B.0 empty disk drive: Devices > CD/DVD devices > Remove disk from virtual drive
B.1 make VBoxGuestAdditions.iso accessible: Devices > Install Guest Additions...
B.2 open a terminal
B.3 cd /media/VBOX[tab]
B.4 sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

C.0 Added Shared folder in Oracle VM VirtualBox: Devices > Shared Folders...
C.1 open a terminal
C.2 mkdir /tmp/share
C.3 chmod 777 /tmp/share
C.4 mount -t vboxsf share /tmp/share

Then I performed the same actions as at 12 December 2010 to get the system ready for installation of Oracle EBS R12.1.1.

Additional action (as on 13 June 2010):
==== OS Library Patch for Oracle HTTP Server
Download patch 6078836 from Oracle Support; Look for platform Linux x86 (you won’t find it using platform Linux x86-64).
Unzip the file.
cp libdb.so.2 /usr/lib

Prolongation

In December 2010 my WD 1TB My Book Studio Edition WD10000H1Q-00 stopped working. After I used it to backup some files from my older Windows XP PC and then reconnected it to my Windows 7 laptop, it kept saying "you need to format disk E; before you can use it". The fix was unbelievable simple: "chkdsk e: /f". However, it took me a while to find this 'solution' on the internet.

I hope I'll have some time coming weeks to complete my mission.
In the meantime I upgraded my Oracle VM Virual Box to version 4.0.4. I have no screenprints, as installation is very straightforward (keep clicking next).
Also I applied Service Pack 1 for Windows7 (64 bit).