ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode

On a newly installed Oracle 11.2.0.2 instance I tried to enable archive logging:


SQL> startup mount force


SQL> alter database archivelog;
alter database archivelog
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode


SQL> recover database;
ORA-00283: recovery session canceled due to errors
ORA-00264: no recovery required

WTF!!!

SQL> alter database recover;

Database altered.

SQL> alter database archivelog;
alter database archivelog
*
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-00265: instance recovery required, cannot set ARCHIVELOG mode

!?!?!?

What happens if we do a new shutdown and startup mount (without force this time)?

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.

SQL> shutdown

SQL> startup mount

SQL> alter database archivelog;

Database altered.

SQL> archive log list

Database log mode              Archive Mode

Automatic archival             Enabled

Archive destination            /oracle/11.2.0.2/dbs/arch

Oldest online log sequence     45

Next log sequence to archive   46

Current log sequence           46

SQL> alter database open;

Database altered.

All well again!  :)