One example of internal error

One of my collegue called me for the following internal error on Oracle 10g R2:

5202,5270d5201
< 382952:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 17
< 382953:ORA-27301: OS failure message: File exists
< 382954:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 382955:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 382987:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 382988:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 382989:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 382990:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 382995:ORA-00443: background process "ARC0" did not start
< 383000:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383001:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383002:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383003:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383008:ORA-00443: background process "ARC1" did not start
< 383013:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383014:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383015:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383016:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383021:ORA-00443: background process "ARC2" did not start
< 383026:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383027:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383028:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383029:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383034:ORA-00443: background process "ARC3" did not start
< 383039:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383040:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383041:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383042:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383047:ORA-00443: background process "ARC4" did not start
< 383052:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383053:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383054:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383055:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383060:ORA-00443: background process "ARC5" did not start
< 383065:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383066:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383067:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383068:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383073:ORA-00443: background process "ARC6" did not start
< 383078:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383079:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383080:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383081:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383086:ORA-00443: background process "ARC7" did not start
< 383091:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383092:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383093:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383094:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383099:ORA-00443: background process "ARC8" did not start
< 383104:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383105:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383106:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383107:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383112:ORA-00443: background process "ARC9" did not start
< 383117:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383118:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383119:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383120:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383125:ORA-00443: background process "ARCa" did not start
< 383130:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383131:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383132:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383133:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383138:ORA-00443: background process "ARCb" did not start
< 383148:ORA-27300: OS system dependent operation:fork failed with status: 2
< 383149:ORA-27301: OS failure message: No such file or directory
< 383150:ORA-27302: failure occurred at: skgpspawn5
< 383151:ORA-27303: additional information: skgpspawn5
< 383156:ORA-00443: background process "" did not start

It our production database and it can not be started. Finally I figured out the cause is that the database was not shutdown properly. There're some background processes still running when he tried to start the database. After killing the running processes, the database were able to start.