the problem: sometimes you’ll see the following when you’re having issues with your oracle client

try this: go to your ORACLE_HOME/bin and run adapters to see what adapters you have installed

you might see something like

what you’ll need to do is relink the protocol adapters. try this (MOS 435795.1) to relink them(Note: even though some things may result in errors, proceed through the following procedure in it’s entirety)

1. connect as the owner of the installation

2. make sure that ORACLE_HOME and LD_LIBRARY_PATH are set correctly
   Note: LD_LIBRARY_PATH should be set to –> $ORACLE_HOME/lib

3. shutdown all Oracle instances and processes running from your Oracle Home

4. execute the following

   script /tmp/relink_adapt.out 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin 
   ./gennttab 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib 
   make -f ins_net_client.mk ntcontab.o 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/bin 
   genclntsh 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/rdbms/lib 
   make -f ins_rdbms.mk install 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/sqlplus/lib 
   make -f ins_sqlplus.mk install 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib 
   make -f ins_net_client.mk install 
   cd $ORACLE_HOME/network/lib 
   make -f ins_net_server.mk install 
   exit

check the adapters again, it should return something like the following now:

now try performing your tnsping again. at the very least, it should not give you the “TNS-12538: TNS:no such protocol adapter” error again.