[FIXED] JDK version issue (ASM5 unable to create annotation scanner exception)

Issue

I was recently working on 2 different projects, one was based on Tomee and JDK8 and the other one on Quarkus and JDK11. After I switched my env. variables to point to JDK8 I suddenly can't build my JDK8 based project.

I get the following exception:

 org.apache.catalina.LifecycleException: Failed to start component [StandardEngine[Catalina].StandardHost[localhost].StandardContext[/app]]
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:167)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:752)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:728)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:734)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:988)
    at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig$DeployWar.run(HostConfig.java:1860)
    at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:511)
    at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(FutureTask.java:266)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1149)
    at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:624)
    at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)
Caused by: org.apache.tomee.catalina.TomEERuntimeException: org.apache.openejb.OpenEJBException: Unable to create annotation scanner for web module app: null
    at org.apache.tomee.catalina.TomcatWebAppBuilder.loadApplication(TomcatWebAppBuilder.java:2305)
    at org.apache.tomee.catalina.TomcatWebAppBuilder.startInternal(TomcatWebAppBuilder.java:1188)
    at org.apache.tomee.catalina.TomcatWebAppBuilder.configureStart(TomcatWebAppBuilder.java:1125)
    at org.apache.tomee.catalina.GlobalListenerSupport.lifecycleEvent(GlobalListenerSupport.java:133)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.fireLifecycleEvent(LifecycleBase.java:94)
    at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.startInternal(StandardContext.java:5105)
    at org.apache.catalina.util.LifecycleBase.start(LifecycleBase.java:150)
    ... 10 more
Caused by: org.apache.openejb.OpenEJBException: Unable to create annotation scanner for web module app: null
    at org.apache.openejb.config.DeploymentLoader.addWebModule(DeploymentLoader.java:886)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.DeploymentLoader.load(DeploymentLoader.java:233)
    at org.apache.tomee.catalina.TomcatWebAppBuilder.loadApplication(TomcatWebAppBuilder.java:2303)
    ... 16 more
Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
    at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at org.apache.xbean.finder.AnnotationFinder.readClassDef(AnnotationFinder.java:1169)
    at org.apache.xbean.finder.AnnotationFinder.<init>(AnnotationFinder.java:147)
    at org.apache.xbean.finder.AnnotationFinder.<init>(AnnotationFinder.java:160)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.FinderFactory$OpenEJBAnnotationFinder.<init>(FinderFactory.java:546)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.FinderFactory.newFinder(FinderFactory.java:267)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.FinderFactory.create(FinderFactory.java:80)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.FinderFactory.createFinder(FinderFactory.java:69)
    at org.apache.openejb.config.DeploymentLoader.addWebModule(DeploymentLoader.java:878)
    ... 18 more

I have also tried reinstalling JDK.

Output of java -version is:

java version "1.8.0_291"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_291-b10)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.291-b10, mixed mode)

I build project using Maven from console and not IDE and use Maven Tomee plugin to run it:

mvn tomee:run

Output of mvn -version is:

Apache Maven 3.6.3 (cecedd343002696d0abb50b32b541b8a6ba2883f)
Maven home: C:\Dev\apache-maven-3.6.3-bin\apache-maven-3.6.3\bin\..
Java version: 1.8.0_291, vendor: Oracle Corporation, runtime: C:\Program Files\Java\jdk1.8.0_291\jre
Default locale: en_US, platform encoding: Cp1252
OS name: "windows 10", version: "10.0", arch: "amd64", family: "windows"

I also checked IntelliJ settings, even though I'm not running the app through IDE but in a separate shell.

Solution

Resolved by removing all of the JDK-s, removing maven, deleting local .m2 directory, removing checked out projects, removing all env. variables related to JDK or Maven.

• Installed JDK 1.8
• Installed latest version of maven
• Cloned project from repo again
• Compiled and ran project successfully

Answered By - whatamidoingwithmylife
Answer Checked By - Cary Denson (JavaFixing Admin)