OPatch cannot proceed!

Problem:

I tried to run OPatch on Oracle SOA Suite 11g (Linux) and got the following error, even though my JAVA_HOME and PATH environment variables were correctly set:

oracle@oradev:/u01/app/oracle/middleware/Oracle_SOA1/OPatch> ./opatch lsinventory 

/u01/app/oracle/jdk/bin/java is not a valid executable for this platform. OPatch cannot proceed!
OPatch returns with error code = 1

Solution:

This was because ORACLE_HOME was incorrectly defined.

1. Correctly set the ORACLE_HOME environment variable, and rerun the command:

export ORACLE_HOME=/u01/app/oracle/middleware/Oracle_SOA1

Applicable Versions:

• Oracle SOA Suite 11g (11.1.1.x)