ORA-01994: GRANT failed: password file missing or disabled

Symptoms of The Error:

-------------------------
In unix system whenever you tried to grant sysdba privilege to a user it returns
with error.
ORA-01994: GRANT failed: password file missing or disabled.
Cause of The Problem:
------------------------
The oracle software owner is not the owner of the passwordfile.
Solutions of The Problem:
----------------------------
1)Log on to Unix box as the same user who owns the file $ORACLE_HOME and create
the password file as follows.
$orapwd file=$ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID password=password entries=4 force
=y
2)Now grant sysdba privilege to the users that you need. Check V$PWFILE_USERS ab
out the entry.
SQL>GRANT SYSDBA to SYSTEM;
3)Check the owner of $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID
This would typically,
SQL> !ls -l $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID
-rw-r----- 1 oracle oinstall 1536 Apr 23 16:31 /oracle/app/oracle/product/10.2.0
/db_1/dbs/orapwdata1
4)If it is not to dba then change the ownership by
$chown oracle:dba $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID
Also change permission by,
$chmod 4640 $ORACLE_HOME/dbs/orapw$ORACLE_SID