Please follow these below steps to install oracle client12 in ubuntu 14.04
Here it will just install the sqlplus and it's supporting library only.
Download oracle-instance-sqlplus and oracle-instance-basic from oracle site . Please make sure to download the version as per the OS system type like 32 or 64bit.
sudo apt-get install alien
sudo alien -i
sudo alien -i
NOTE : it will create the .deb file and install .deb file by double clicking on the file else follow the below command to install the .deb file
dpkg -i <.deb file>
sudo apt-get install libaio1
sudo vi /etc/ld.so.conf.d/oracle.conf
update the below line in oracle.conf. Please make sure the exact path. In my case it is given below.
/usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64/lib/
sudo ldconfig
Now check if oracle installed successfully or not.
which sqlplus64
OR
which sqlplus
Extra steps to manage oracle client from HOME with tnsnames.ora
cd /home
ln -s /usr/lib/oracle/12.1/client64 oracle
cd oracle
sudo mkdir -p network/admin
sudo vi tnsnames.ora
NOTE : Please add the required service string in tnsnames.ora , then save and quit the file.
vi ~/.bashrc OR vi ~/.bash_profile
export ORACLE_HOME=/home/oracle
export PATH=$PATH:$ORACLE_HOME/bin
that's it, and happy sqlplus