How to install Tomcat7 in Ubuntu 14.04 LTS?

Question

If I apt-get install tomcat7 it is installing a broken tomcat7. A simple startup.sh will give me errors, than when fixed says that tomcat has started but nothing shows up in localhost:8080. shutdown.sh will give me errors and even throw Java exceptions. This wasn't happening in some previous Ubuntu release, where it simply worked. So, it is looks like tomcat package it been not maintained lately.

I can get it working from Eclipse (which by the way it is not been properly maintain too) when I am testing my web app. However there are things I need to test in an standalone tomcat installation. So far, Google hasn't helped.

Have any of you managed to properly installing tomcat7 in Ubuntu 14.4LTS? If so, can you point me to the right direction?

Edit:

Here is some logs.

Starting tomcat:

$ sudo /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/startup.sh 
Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/share/tomcat7
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /usr/share/tomcat7
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/share/tomcat7/temp
Using JRE_HOME:        /usr
Using CLASSPATH:       /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/share/tomcat7/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Tomcat started.

Browsing to localhost:8080 (and http://127.0.0.1:8080, http://127.0.0.1, http://[my network ip here]):

Oops! Google Chrome could not connect to localhost:8080

Stopping tomcat also fails:

$ sudo /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/shutdown.sh 
Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/share/tomcat7
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /usr/share/tomcat7
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/share/tomcat7/temp
Using JRE_HOME:        /usr
Using CLASSPATH:       /usr/share/tomcat7/bin/bootstrap.jar:/usr/share/tomcat7/bin/tomcat-juli.jar
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/common/classes], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/common], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/server/classes], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/server], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/shared/classes], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.ClassLoaderFactory validateFile
WARNING: Problem with directory [/usr/share/tomcat7/shared], exists: [false], isDirectory: [false], canRead: [false]
Jul 03, 2014 7:15:55 PM org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina stopServer
SEVERE: Catalina.stop: 
java.io.FileNotFoundException: /usr/share/tomcat7/conf/server.xml (No such file or directory)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.open(Native Method)
    at java.io.FileInputStream.<init>(FileInputStream.java:146)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Catalina.stopServer(Catalina.java:466)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:57)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:606)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.stopServer(Bootstrap.java:370)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(Bootstrap.java:457)

Solution 1

I believe your CATALINA_BASE is incorrect it runs out of the /var/lib/tomcat7 directory and CATALINA_HOME is proper in regards to how you have declared the variable. Add CATALINA_HOME and CATALINA_BASE to /etc/default/tomcat7 along with JAVA_HOME and JRE_HOME. That executable notifies the tomcat servlet of how the environment is set upon start up of the servlet.

It could also be considered to put them in /etc/profile and then export them in /etc/bash.bashrc (i.e. export CATALINA_HOME). This should only be done if and only if your site doesn't have user login or registration. With out exporting the variables they would still be declared locally.

To globally declare the variables an approach, if you are the admin (group 4, you might also want to think about moving syslog to group 37, purging rsyslog and just keep the daemon running for logs as well so you preserve mandatory access control) you could ponder creating a ~/.bash_completion or ~/.bash_expert file in your home directory where you have something like this:

# ~/.bash_expert in regards to servlet alias
if [ -f /etc/bash_completion.d/.tomservlet ]; then
    . /etc/bash_completion.d/.tomservlet
fi
export CATALINA_HOME
export CATALINA_BASE
export JRE_HOME
export JAVA_HOME

Then create the .tomservlet file in /etc/bash_completion.d/.tomservlet and add the following:

CATALINA_HOME=/usr/share/tomcat7
CATALINA_BASE=/var/lib/tomcat7
JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/jdk1.7.0
JRE_HOME=$JAVA_HOME:/jre

Once that is completed add the following lines to ~/.bashrc

if [ -f "$HOME/.bash_expert" ];then
    . "$HOME/.bash_expert"
fi

Then source the ~/.bashrc file as shown below:

:~$ source .bashrc

and that should take care of your problems, in a secure fashion no matter what type of client side interaction is taken place. (Don't hold me to that, you never know what martians are lurking in cyberspace, it can be a scary realm sometimes).

P.S. I previously was referring to the oracle-sun jdk7 or I guess its just Oracle Jdk7 so if you are using the Open Jdk replace it as necessary, if using the oracle go back into the /etc/init.d/tomcat file and change openjdk to your version where the script refers to "$OPENJDK". This also assumes you installed from the repositories.

Good luck, and may your tomcat purr!!

Solution 2

I tried this on a fresh container:

sudo apt-get install tomcat7
sudo dpkg-reconfigure tomcat7

It seems to fix the issue in my case.

Edit : dpkg-reconfigure will replace your custom config for tomcat7 with the default packet manager configuration, or, where given, it will present a menu to customize.

Solution 3

1. Download the official tomcat from their website

   wget http://mirrors.fe.up.pt/pub/apache/tomcat/tomcat-7/v7.0.54/bin/apache-tomcat-7.0.54.zip
   

2. Decompress it

   unzip apache-tomcat-7.0.54.zip       
   

3. Make sure you have Java installed and JAVA_HOME defined

4. Start your tomcat.

Comments

[Juan Garcia]

The $ sudo service tomcat7 restart output is tomcat7: unrecognized service

[hwez]

$ cd /opt/local/tomcat7/bin $ ls you will find shell script file im not exactly sure about the name it could be restart.sh excute it by $ sudo sh restart.sh if the restart.sh dont exist try to start then close then start again by $ sudo startup.sh $ sudo shutdown.sh $ sudo startup.sh

[Juan Garcia]

/opt/local/tomcat7/bin doesn't exist, it is under /usr/share/tomcat7/bin. startup.sh said that tomcat has started but the browser can't see anythin in localhost:8080 (trying with local ip too). shutdown.sh show warnings and throws an exception. I will update the question with the log

[Juan Garcia]

Update: I have posted my logs

[hwez]

/opt/tomcat/bin or /opt/tomcat7 or /etc/tomcat7 or /etc/tomcat if you dont find it cd /opt; ls -lh && cd /etc; ls -ls put in pastebin & comment it im going to install tocat7 & check it for u

[Juan Garcia]

Nothing under /etc or /opt. Under /usr/share/tomcat* is tomcat7, tomcat7-admin, tomcat7-docs, tomcat7-examples, tomcat7-root

[Juan Garcia]

Looking my logs make me thing that even when the default CATALINA_BASE and CATALINA_HOME are pointing to the same path, one of them might be incorrect. Correct me if I am wrong.

[hwez]

the problem is this file is missing /usr/share/tomcat7/conf/server.xml (No such file or directory) just restart the service by & this is how to configure the tomcat7 with apche2 diegobenna.blogspot.com/2011/01/…

[Ashwani Kumar Rahul]

what to do if localhost:8080 works fine but server_IP_address:8080 does not.... will the above procedure work.....

[John Little]

Tried this, didnt fix the error for me sadly. Broke my install also, bind exceptions etc.

[user283885]

Should have added that reconfigure replaces any custom files with the package manager's defaults for the given package.