There are several possibilities that can cause this:
1). "opatch auto ". The directory where patch is unzipped is not supplied as
2). patch is downloaded and unzipped into an existing and non-empty directory.
3). opatch executable is not installed and launched from $GRID_HOME/OPatch.
4). $OH/.patch_storage cannot be created.
5). listener is running from DB home
6). "OPatch" directory in DB home is owned by root:oinstall instead of : as required.
7). GI user and RDBMS user are different. workaround is to apply manually (Note: 1210964.1. This is an internal note, please contact Oracle Support to get assistance).
