Oracle 10.2 client does not give permissions to "others"

Problem or error: Attempting to map tables using the Oracle 10.2 client fails with a Library not found error. Table mapping succeeds if you change to the Oracle 10.1 client.

Solution: This is a known defect with Oracle client 10.2. By default, Oracle client 10.2 does not give any permission (r, w or x) to "other" groups. Only Oracle and its default group (dba) have read and execute access on the entire Oracle client directory and all subdirectories. So, a user cannot read the database libraries unless the user is also in the dba group. Changing user permissions under the lib/lib32 directories will not allow table mapping and will produce a different error.

To enable table mapping for users in other groups, change permissions on the ORACLE_HOME directory to allow read and execute access to others recursively.