Changing shared_pool_size dynamically

On Oracle 10.1.0.4.0 changing shared_pool_size dynamically seems to crash the databases. So if
you run

alter system set shared_pool_size = 400M;

or 

alter system set shared_pool_size = 400M scope = both;

The database will crash with 
ERROR at line 1:
ORA-03113: end-of-file on communication channel

It seems that you still have to modify ini file or spfile and then bounce the database:

alter system set shared_pool_size = 400M scope = spfile;