"Could not run phased build action using connection to Gradle distribution"

Question

I'm having various Gradle problems after a new clean Eclipse install. They seem to be associated w/ this "Problem" message:

Could not run phased build action using connection to Gradle distribution 'https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.1.1-bin.zip'.
Initialization script 'Z:\eclipse-workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.buildship.core\init.d\eclipsePlugin.gradle'
Could not compile initialization script 'Z:\eclipse-workspace\.metadata\.plugins\org.eclipse.buildship.core\init.d\eclipsePlugin.gradle'.
startup failed:
General error during semantic analysis: Unsupported class file major version 60
java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Unsupported class file major version 60
    at groovyjarjarasm.asm.ClassReader.<init>(ClassReader.java:196)
.....
    at org.gradle.internal.concurrent.ThreadFactoryImpl$ManagedThreadRunnable.run(ThreadFactoryImpl.java:56)
    at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:831)
1 error

I've already tried deleting .gradle & "Gradle->Refresh Gradle Project". I've also tried this: stackoverflow

My Java install is clean:

java version "16.0.1" 2021-04-20

& confirmed Eclipse is pointing to it ("Preferences->Java->Installed JREs").

Installation details:

Buildship: Eclipse Plug-ins for Gradle  3.1.5.v20210113-0929
Eclipse IDE for Java Developers 4.20.0.20210612-1200    

Windows 10.

Eclipse Install Err Log:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.buildship.core 2 2 2021-07-09 11:22:05.951
!MESSAGE Initialize project testgradleprj failed due to an error in the referenced Gradle build.
!STACK 0
org.gradle.tooling.BuildException: Could not execute build using connection to Gradle distribution 'https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.1.1-bin.zip'.

Solution 1

Thanks to LMC. I changed the project prefs->Gradle from Wrapper to Specific=7.1.1 :

Solution 2

Gradle 6.8 does not work with Java 16.
Java 16 supported starting with Gradle 7

"In previous Gradle versions, running Gradle itself on Java 16 resulted in an error."

https://docs.gradle.org/7.0/release-notes.html#java-16