Problem:

ERROR: java.lang.ClassFormatError when installing Universal Edition command line on Unix.

Resolution:

Information in this Brief applies to:

• Universal Edition 5.x
• Unix - Solaris, HP-UX, Linux, AIX

Problem

When installing the Universal Edition on Unix, user gets the following error.

$ java -cp . setup -o /usr/local/st
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ClassFormatError: setup (Illegal constant pool index)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass0(Native Method)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$1(Unknown Source)
at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(Unknown Source)
at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClassInternal(Unknown Source)

Workaround

This error indicates that java class file (setup.class) is corrupted. This usually happens when you ftp the "setup.class" file directly from Windows with default "ascii" mode. To workaround this issue, either ftp the "setup.class" file as binary or copy/ftp the file called "ue.tar.gz" to the Unix box. Since gz files are compressed files, the class file contained in it will not be corrupted.