How to work around SEVERE: OUI-10197:Unable to create a new Oracle Home when using clone.pl

When cloning a database home onto a new server, the clone.pl script threw the following error:

perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/11204 ORACLE_HOME_NAME=11204 

SEVERE: OUI-10197:Unable to create a new Oracle Home at /u01/oracle/product/11204. Oracle Home already exists at this location. Select another location.

The server was freshly installed, new volume Groups, logical Volume Groups and file systems newly created.

I then realized that since the software was tared and untared into a new directory, there would potentially be an existing Oracle Inventory present, and I would needed to "detach" the ORACLE_HOME before cloning it. The tarball did indeed contain an Inventory:

 myserver>cd $ORACLE_HOME
 myserver>cat oraInst.loc.org
 inventory_loc=/u01/oracle/oraInventory
 inst_group=dba

Since there was no such directory present, I created it:

myserver>mkdir /u01/oracle/oraInventory/ContentsXML/
myserver>cd /u01/oracle/oraInventory/ContentsXML/
myserver>vi inventory.xml

In the file inventory.xml, I added the following minimal information:

<!-- Copyright (c) 1999, 2013, Oracle and/or its affiliates.
All rights reserved. -->
 <!-- Do not modify the contents of this file by hand. -->
 <inventory>
 <version_info>
    <saved_with>11.2.0.4.0</saved_with>
    <minimum_ver>2.1.0.6.0</minimum_ver>
 </version_info>
 <home_list>
 <home idx="1" loc="/u01/oracle/product/11204" name="11204" type="O">
 </home></home_list>
 <compositehome_list>
 </compositehome_list>
 </inventory>

I then added

 -invPtrLoc /u01/oracle/product/11204/oraInst.loc

to file $ORACLE_HOME/clone/config/cs.properties

Next, I detached the ORACLE_HOME:

myserver>cd $ORACLE_HOME/oui/bin
 myserver>./runInstaller -detachHome ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/11204 -invPtrLoc /u01/oracle/product/11204/oraInst.loc
 Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

 Checking swap space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 8192 MB    Passed
 The inventory pointer is located at /u01/oracle/product/11204/oraInst.loc
 The inventory is located at /u01/oracle/oraInventory
 'DetachHome' was successful.

Finally I was able to clone the ORACLE_HOME:

perl clone.pl ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/11204 ORACLE_HOME_NAME=11204 ORACLE_BASE=/u01/oracle OSDBA_GROUP=dba

 ********************************************************************************

 Your platform requires the root user to perform certain pre-clone
 OS preparation.  The root user should run the shell script 'rootpre.sh' before
 you proceed with cloning.  rootpre.sh can be found at
 /u01/oracle/product/11204/clone directory.
 Answer 'y' if the root user has run 'rootpre.sh' script.

 ********************************************************************************

 Has 'rootpre.sh' been run by the root user? [y/n] (n)
 y
 ./runInstaller -clone -waitForCompletion  "ORACLE_HOME=/u01/oracle/product/11204" "ORACLE_HOME_NAME=11204" "ORACLE_BASE=/u01/oracle" "oracle_install_OSDBA=dba" -silent -noConfig -nowait -invPtrLoc /u01/oracle/product/11204/oraInst.loc
 Starting Oracle Universal Installer...

 Checking swap space: must be greater than 500 MB.   Actual 8192 MB    Passed
 Preparing to launch Oracle Universal Installer from /tmp/OraInstall2014-06-11_03-12-31PM. Please wait ...Oracle Universal Installer, Version 11.2.0.4.0 Production
 Copyright (C) 1999, 2013, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 You can find the log of this install session at:
  /u01/oracle/oraInventory/logs/cloneActions2014-06-11_03-12-31PM.log
 .................................................................................................... 100% Done.



 Installation in progress (Wednesday, June 11, 2014 3:12:45 PM CEST)
 ................................................................................                                                80% Done.
 Install successful

 Linking in progress (Wednesday, June 11, 2014 3:12:54 PM CEST)
 Link successful

 Setup in progress (Wednesday, June 11, 2014 3:15:32 PM CEST)
 Setup successful

 End of install phases.(Wednesday, June 11, 2014 3:15:59 PM CEST)
 WARNING:
 The following configuration scripts need to be executed as the "root" user.
 /u01/oracle/product/11204/root.sh
 To execute the configuration scripts:
     1. Open a terminal window
     2. Log in as "root"
     3. Run the scripts

 The cloning of 11204 was successful.
 Please check '/u01/oracle/oraInventory/logs/cloneActions2014-06-11_03-12-31PM.log' for more details.