<p>Tomcat fails to start even if i remove all my applications from the WEBAPPS directory leaving everything just like after the OS installation.</p>

<p>The log (catalina.out) says:</p>

<pre><code>Using CATALINA_BASE:   /usr/share/tomcat5
Using CATALINA_HOME:   /usr/share/tomcat5
Using CATALINA_TMPDIR: /usr/share/tomcat5/temp
Using JRE_HOME:       
Created MBeanServer with ID: -dpv07y:fl4s82vl.0:hydrogenium.timberlinecolorado.com:1
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: org.apache.catalina.core.StandardService
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.Class.newInstance(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.init(bootstrap.jar.so)
   at org.apache.catalina.startup.Bootstrap.main(bootstrap.jar.so)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry not found in org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader{urls=[file:/var/lib/tomcat5/server/classes/,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/catalina-cluster-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/catalina-storeconfig-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/catalina-optional-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-coyote-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-jkstatus-ant-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-ajp-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/servlets-default-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/servlets-invoker-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/catalina-ant-jmx-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-http-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-util-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/tomcat-apr-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.jdt.core_3.2.1.v_677_R32x.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/servlets-webdav-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/catalina-5.5.23.jar], parent=org.apache.catalina.loader.StandardClassLoader{urls=[file:/var/lib/tomcat5/common/classes/,file:/var/lib/tomcat5/common/i18n/tomcat-i18n-ja.jar,file:/var/lib/tomcat5/common/i18n/tomcat-i18n-fr.jar,file:/var/lib/tomcat5/common/i18n/tomcat-i18n-en.jar,file:/var/lib/tomcat5/common/i18n/tomcat-i18n-es.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/naming-resources-5.5.23.jar,file:/usr/share/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.jdt.core_3.2.1.v_677_R32x.jar,file:/usr/share/java/tomcat5/naming-factory-5.5.23.jar], parent=gnu.gcj.runtime.SystemClassLoader{urls=[file:/usr/lib/jvm/java/lib/tools.jar,file:/usr/share/tomcat5/bin/bootstrap.jar,file:/usr/share/tomcat5/bin/commons-logging-api.jar,file:/usr/share/java/mx4j/mx4j-impl.jar,file:/usr/share/java/mx4j/mx4j-jmx.jar], parent=gnu.gcj.runtime.ExtensionClassLoader{urls=[], parent=null}}}}
   at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   at java.lang.Class.initializeClass(libgcj.so.7rh)
   ...5 more
</code></pre>

[{'answer_id': 62488, 'author': 'Stu Thompson', 'author_id': 2961, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/2961', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>This screams class path issue, to me.  Where exactly is your tomcat installed?  (Give us command line printouts of where the home directory is.)  Also, how are you starting it?</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 62559, 'author': 'tbond', 'author_id': 6197, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/6197', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': '<p>Check your <code>JAVA_HOME/JRE_HOME</code> setting. You might want to use a different JVM rather than the one that is installed with the OS</p>\n'}, {'answer_id': 64862, 'author': 'Alexandre Brasil', 'author_id': 8841, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/8841', 'pm_score': 1, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Seems like you've implemented a JMX service and tried to install it on your server.xml file but forgot to add the apache commons modeler jar to the server/lib directory (therefore the <code>ClassNotFoundException</code> for <code>org.apache.commons.modeler.Registry</code>). Check your server.xml file for anything you might have added, and try to add the proper jar file to your server classpath.</p>\n"}, {'answer_id': 358763, 'author': 'Community', 'author_id': -1, 'author_profile': 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1', 'pm_score': 0, 'selected': False, 'text': "<p>Seems like you need to have the jar for commons-modeler into <code>$CATALINA_HOME/common/lib</code>. You get the same kind of error when trying to setup JDBC datasources if you didn't put the driver's jar file into tomcat's server classpath.</p>\n"}]
['https://Stackoverflow.com/questions/62447', 'https://Stackoverflow.com', 'https://Stackoverflow.com/users/-1/']