Head met wall, repeatedly

I've wasted so much time this week trying to install Oracle8i on a test server at work. Only now, as I'm preparing to upgrade this test installation to Oracle9i do I come across this little peice of arcane knowledge:

Installation of Oracle9i database components from a remote Terminal Services Client onto a Windows 2000 server that is running a Terminal Server Service or Windows NT 4.0 Terminal Server is not supported. If you attempt to install Oracle9i in this manner, many database configuration tools will hang. Start all the configuration tools from the Terminal Server console and not from the Terminal Services Client.

-- Oracle Universal Installer Overview (requires free registration).

Presumably this must apply to Oracle8i database components too, if my experience this week shows. I had started using Terminal Services (in Remote Administration Mode) at first and was spinning in circles, not even able to get the most basic TNS Listener service to work properly. Then, on what was really nothing more than a whim I installed the latest version of VNC on the server. That was when things started working and progress was of the sort that is made.

Of course, now it's the weekend and I haven't upgraded the test database yet. I think I'll probably have to work on this remotely till I get it done as I have it planned to upgrade the live system when I go back to work a week on Monday.