redhat 7+ora8i = wasted time
I have tried fruitlessly to get oracle 8i and redhat 7 to work together. I wouldn't suggest you toy with that, however, oracle 9i and redhat 7.1 (seawolf) worked just fine. Redhat 6.x and oracle 8/8i go over pretty well too. The 9i install on redhat 6 has been done to death, but here are some helpful notes on 9i, if you live on the edge
2 caveats:
1) read the docs. 9i requires java 1.3.1 and because of that, you MUST use either a patche glibc and compat c++ lib, or 7.1 out of the box.
2) I had some problem with the web downloaded 9i (libclntsh.so would not extract), so I had to manually unjar the file and place it under ORACLE_HOME/lib (the error was actually uncovered during the running of $ORACLE_HOME/plsql/lib/ins_plsql.mk) If you get an error about the script, do an 'updatedb', then do a 'locate clntsh'. Then, jar xvf the jarfile that locate returns. and hit the retry button in the runInstaller window.
Oh, and the installer is a big memory hog. It uses every bit of 512MB ram..... make sure you have enough, or linux will kill the installer at 4:00 am. It is HEARTLESS