Another Win98 Tomcat install problem

I've been trying to install Tomcat, and first I had this error:
Using CATALINA_BASE: C:\Tomcat4.0
Using CATALINA_HOME: C:\Tomcat4.0
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: C:\Tomcat4.0\temp
Using JAVA_HOME: C:\J2SDK1.4.0
Bad command or file name
Following the instructions in this thread:
http://www.coderanch.com/t/81609/Tomcat/Tomcat-startup-Windows-ME
I commented out the start commands from the catalina.bat file. Now Tomcat seems to start - I get:
C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.4\bin>startup.bat
Using CATALINA_BASE: C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.4
Using CATALINA_HOME: C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.4
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: C:\jakarta-tomcat-4.0.4\temp
Using JAVA_HOME: C:\jdk1.3
Starting service Tomcat-Standalone
Apache Tomcat/4.0.4
Starting service Tomcat-Apache
Apache Tomcat/4.0.4

The problem is, nothing happens when I try to get
http://localhost:8080/
I used to have JSDK on 8080, which I changed to 8081, but it still shows a cached JSDK page.
I tried to change the Tomcat port to 8088, in $CATALINA_HOME/conf/server.xml (just changed the only instance of 8080 to 8088), but http://localhost:8088/ just gives HTTP 500 error.
Could anyone suggest what I should try next, please?
[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: Lucy Smaile ]

Hi!
Your getting cached pages although you switched servers is coz
1) You probably have yer JSDK still running and Tomcat exiting coz the port is already bound..
2) or your browser caching up a lotta stuff.
Check both and if problem persists.. buzz again/
Regds
Lupo

I've changed the port to 8088, which I presume has never been used for anything, and I just get an HTTP 500 error.
Searching other posts, someone seems to have solved this problem in Win 2000 by installing a loopback adapter. (See this post - although he didn't say if he was getting a 500 error or a different one.)
But I didn't find a loopback adapter for Win98 - and other than under 'Add New Hardware', I wouldn't know where to look...
Any more ideas, please?

[ June 24, 2002: Message edited by: Lucy Smaile ]

Hi Lucy,

From that other thread:

But before all that Windows 2000 pops up a dialog box that says this page cannot be accessed offline, then it gives me the choice to connect or stay offline. When I choose stay offline (because there's no connection) then it gives me your standard page cannot be displayed error.

If this is what is happening, then yes, you need to install a loopback adapter. But... on Win9x, there isn't one. Do you have the MS Client for Networks installed? in: Control Panel | Network do you see this listed? If not, add it from the Client list (it's listed under Microsoft)
If that doesn't work, install a dial-up adapter (Control Panel | Network | Add | Adpater - Microsoft - Dialup adapter

As for your gautham's ideas:
1) jsdk... there is no port conflict with 8080, since it would error out long before you got the message:

Starting service Tomcat-Standalone
Apache Tomcat/4.0.4
Starting service Tomcat-Apache
Apache Tomcat/4.0.4
Go ahead and set it back to port 8080 if you want.
2) This is always a good idea to check. The browser can't tell that http://localhost:8008/foo is now referring to a page served by Tomcat, as opposed to one served by the jsdk. IE has a setting that will allow the browser to *never* check the page again. In IE 5.5 go to:
Tools | Internet Options | General Tab | Temporary Internet Files area | Settings button
Make sure it says "Every visit to the page"

Mike,
Thanks very much for your suggestions.
I do get the 'connect or stay offline' dialog, like the other guy. (With JSDK, I just clicked 'connect' and it served the pages no problem - without connecting.)
I tried installing both MS Client for Networks and a dial-up adapter from the Win98 CD, but neither made any difference.
I think there must be something going on, as it's an 'internal server error', not just a normal 'Page not found' sort of error...
I wonder what the problem could be? I've seen that other people have got Tomcat to work with Win98, and I don't exactly feel like changing my OS right now... Can you think of anything else?
Lucy
[ June 25, 2002: Message edited by: Lucy Smaile ]

I found this page about istalling Tomcat, and discovered that my JDK may not be installed quite right. Could that make a difference?
Once you've installed Java, confirm that everything including your PATH is configured properly by opening a DOS window and typing "java -version" and "javac -help". You should see a real result both times, not an error message about an unknown command.
When I type "java -version" it's OK, but "javac -help" doesn't seem so healthy:
javac: invalid flag: -help
Usage: javac <options> <source files>
where possible options include:
-g Generate all debugging info
-g:none Generate no debugging info
-g:{lines,vars,source} Generate only some debugging info
-O Optimize; may hinder debugging or enlarge class file
-nowarn Generate no warnings
-verbose Output messages about what the compiler is doing
-deprecation Output source locations where deprecated APIs are us
ed
-classpath <path> Specify where to find user class files
-sourcepath <path> Specify where to find input source files
-bootclasspath <path> Override location of bootstrap class files
-extdirs <dirs> Override location of installed extensions
-d <directory> Specify where to place generated class files
-encoding <encoding> Specify character encoding used by source files
-target <release> Generate class files for specific VM version

Is there any chance that this could make a difference? (Scraping the barrel )
[ June 25, 2002: Message edited by: Lucy Smaile ]

I don't have jdk1.1.8 installed on my system, but 1.2.2, 1.3.1 and 1.4.0 all have no problem with -help

What does -version give you?

One more thing you can set in IE: Tools | Internet Options | Advanced tab
Make sure you *deselect* 'Show friendly HTTP error messages' and 'Show friendly URLs'

That way you get the 'actual' HTTP error message as returned by the server.

What is the exact URL you are trying to access? Is it http://localhost:8080 ?

I've taken a drastic option today and tried installing a different jdk (1.3.1) and a different version of Tomcat (3.2.3).
This time, startup gives a different error!

Unable to set CLASSPATH dynamically.
Note: To set the CLASSPATH dynamically on Win9x systems
only DOS 8.3 names may be used in TOMCAT_HOME!
Setting your CLASSPATH statically.
Using CLASSPATH: C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\classes;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\ant
.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\jasper.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\jaxp.jar
;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\parser.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\servlet.jar;
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\webserver.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\servlet.ja
r;.;C:\jdk1.3.1\lib\tools.jar
Starting Tomcat in new window
Bad command or file name
As it's ending with 'Bad command or file name', I should think it would have the same problem with the 'start' commands in the catalina.bat as the first one I tried.
I might go back to the first version, which seemed a bit closer...

As for the -version and -help messages. Right now, java -version gives me:
java version "1.3.1"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.3.1-b24)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.3.1-b24, mixed mode)
'javac -help' gives the same message as before. On the other hand 'java -help' (not javac) is fine. The page definitely says 'javac', but could it have been a typo??

One reason I wanted Tomcat was because I need to use JDBC with MySQL and thought that it's easy to install am mmmsql driver in a tomcat directory. Do you think it would be simpler to try and install a driver to work with JSDK? (which has the infinite advantage of actually working!!) Are there any other development servers that would be any easier to set up?
Thanks for your help, anyway!

Well, I don't think you should ever use the JSDK. If I have my acronymns correct, Sun referred to their 2.1 implementation as JSDK and their 2.0 implementation as JSWDK. Neither of these is current, and shouldn't be used.

The MySQL driver is indeed easy to use with Tomcat, just put it in the lib directory of Tomcat3.x and in the common/lib directory for Tomcat4.x

As for something besides Tomcat, people seem to like Resin http://www.theserverside.com/home/thread.jsp?thread_id=13749

I don't think that recent Tomcat releases work with JDK 1.1.8, so you fixed that problem properly.
The "invalid command" thing sounds like maybe the "java" command isn't in your PATH. You should check the BAT file and either put the explicit path in - like: "C:\JDK1.3\bin\java ...." or correct the path if it's wrong. Or shorten if (if needed) to "java ..." and add the JDK\bin directory to the PATH setup statement in AUTOEXEC.BAT.

IT WORKS!!! Well, sort of.
I tried the final combination of Tomcat 3.2.3 and my original JDK1.3. Before, I had been trying to set environment variables in sysedit, but when I just put JAVA_HOME and TOMCAT_HOME at the beginning of Tomcat.bat it did the trick.
Sweet Tomcat index page! But then only about half of the jsp and servlet examples work properly - some only give http 500 error and some of them kind of half work. This is the kind of thing that happens (running 'Date')
Day of month: is 27
Year: is 2002
Month: is June
Time: is 11:11:14
Date: is 6/27/2002
Day: is Thursday
Day Of Year: is 178
Week Of Year: is 26
era: is 1
DST Offset: is 1
Zone Offset: is 1
Error: 500
Location: /examples/jsp/dates/date.jsp
Internal Servlet Error:
javax.servlet.ServletException
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:508)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:840)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.doService(ServletWrapper.java:405)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.service(Handler.java:287)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:372)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.internalService(ContextManager.java:812)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.service(ContextManager.java:758)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.http.HttpConnectionHandler.processConnection(HttpConnectionHandler.java:213)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:416)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:501)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:484)
Root cause:
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.JspWriterImpl.flush(JspWriterImpl.java:209)
at jsp.dates._0002fjsp_0002fdates_0002fdate_0002ejspdate_jsp_0._jspService(_0002fjsp_0002fdates_0002fdate_0002ejspdate_jsp_0.java:159)
at org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:119)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:840)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet$JspCountedServlet.service(JspServlet.java:130)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:840)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet$JspServletWrapper.service(JspServlet.java:282)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:429)
at org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:500)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:840)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.doService(ServletWrapper.java:405)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.Handler.service(Handler.java:287)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ServletWrapper.service(ServletWrapper.java:372)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.internalService(ContextManager.java:812)
at org.apache.tomcat.core.ContextManager.service(ContextManager.java:758)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.http.HttpConnectionHandler.processConnection(HttpConnectionHandler.java:213)
at org.apache.tomcat.service.TcpWorkerThread.runIt(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:416)
at org.apache.tomcat.util.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:501)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:484)

I don't think it likes my classpath very much. (I didn't alter it at all this time.) This is what I get when I start Tomcat:
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\bin>startup
Unable to set CLASSPATH dynamically.
Note: To set the CLASSPATH dynamically on Win9x systems
only DOS 8.3 names may be used in TOMCAT_HOME!
Setting your CLASSPATH statically.
Using CLASSPATH: C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\classes;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\ant
.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\jasper.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\jaxp.jar
;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\parser.jar;C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\servlet.jar;
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\lib\webserver.jar;C:\JAVAc:\jdk1.3\lib;c:.;C:\jdk1.3\lib
\tools.jar
Starting Tomcat in new window
C:\jakarta-tomcat-3.2.3\bin>
And in the new window:
2002-06-27 11:16:49 - ContextManager: Adding context Ctx( /examples )
Starting tomcat. Check logs/tomcat.log for error messages 2002-06-27 11:16:49 -
ContextManager: Adding context Ctx( /admin )
2002-06-27 11:16:49 - ContextManager: Adding context Ctx( )
2002-06-27 11:16:49 - ContextManager: Adding context Ctx( /test )
2002-06-27 11:16:50 - PoolTcpConnector: Starting HttpConnectionHandler on 8080
2002-06-27 11:16:50 - PoolTcpConnector: Starting Ajp12ConnectionHandler on 8007
Anyway, it's a definite step in the right direction!

Yes!!! Now it really does work!
I solved the http500 error problem as in this thread:
http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jsp?forum=45&thread=76702
Apparently what was confusion the thing was that there were different versions of the servlet.jar file knocking around. When I replaced theservlet.jar in jdk1.3/jre/lib/ext with the one from tomcat-3.2.3 it suddenly stopped complaining.
A million thanks for all your help!!! I was starting to think it just wasn't to be...