RuntimeError: Unable to start Tika server.

[mg64ve]

Hi just installed a virtual environment and used pip to install tika.
If I try to run the following code:

#!/usr/bin/env python
import tika
from tika import config
print(config.getParsers())
print(config.getMimeTypes())
print(config.getDetectors())

I am getting:

(myenv) [marco@dellg5 905775388]$ python3
Python 3.13.1 (main, Dec  4 2024, 18:05:56) [GCC 14.2.1 20240910] on linux
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> #!/usr/bin/env python
... import tika
... from tika import config
... print(config.getParsers())
... print(config.getMimeTypes())
... print(config.getDetectors())
... 
2025-04-05 16:21:32,257 [MainThread  ] [WARNI]  Failed to see startup log message; retrying...
2025-04-05 16:21:37,257 [MainThread  ] [WARNI]  Failed to see startup log message; retrying...
2025-04-05 16:21:42,258 [MainThread  ] [WARNI]  Failed to see startup log message; retrying...
2025-04-05 16:21:47,258 [MainThread  ] [ERROR]  Tika startup log message not received after 3 tries.
2025-04-05 16:21:47,259 [MainThread  ] [ERROR]  Failed to receive startup confirmation from startServer.
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<python-input-0>", line 4, in <module>
    print(config.getParsers())
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/home/marco/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/tika/config.py", line 22, in getParsers
    return getConfig('parsers')[1]
           ~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/marco/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/tika/tika.py", line 503, in getConfig
    status, response = callServer('get', serverEndpoint, service, None, {'Accept': responseMimeType}, verbose, tikaServerJar, requestOptions=requestOptions)
                       ~~~~~~~~~~^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
  File "/home/marco/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/tika/tika.py", line 532, in callServer
    serverEndpoint = checkTikaServer(scheme, serverHost, port, tikaServerJar, classpath, config_path)
  File "/home/marco/myenv/lib/python3.13/site-packages/tika/tika.py", line 602, in checkTikaServer
    raise RuntimeError("Unable to start Tika server.")
RuntimeError: Unable to start Tika server.

JAVA 8 is available in the path.

[chrismattmann]

can you show that Tika Server is running in the background? What is the result of ps aux | grep java after you run config.getParsers()?

Also what is in /tmp/*tika*log? any errors?

[mg64ve]

Hi @chrismattmann, the result is the following:

$ ps -aux | grep -i java
marco      14986  0.0  0.0   6468  3952 pts/1    S+   10:03   0:00 grep --colour=auto -i java

yes, there is an error in tika-server.log:

Error: A JNI error has occurred, please check your installation and try again
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsupportedClassVersionError: org/apache/tika/server/core/TikaServerCli has been compiled by a more recent version of the Java Runtime (class file version 55.0), this version of the Java Runtime only recognizes class file versions up to 52.0
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass1(Native Method)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.defineClass(ClassLoader.java:756)
	at java.security.SecureClassLoader.defineClass(SecureClassLoader.java:142)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.defineClass(URLClassLoader.java:473)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.access$100(URLClassLoader.java:74)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:369)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader$1.run(URLClassLoader.java:363)
	at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
	at java.net.URLClassLoader.findClass(URLClassLoader.java:362)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:418)
	at sun.misc.Launcher$AppClassLoader.loadClass(Launcher.java:352)
	at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadClass(ClassLoader.java:351)
	at sun.launcher.LauncherHelper.checkAndLoadMain(LauncherHelper.java:621)

My java version is:

$ java -version
openjdk version "1.8.0_442"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.8.0_442-b06)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 25.442-b06, mixed mode)

[TOZXII]

try to run it with java 11

[chrismattmann]

Yes, please try to run it with java 11 as @TOZXII stated.

[mg64ve]

@TOZXII @chrismattmann with Java 11 it works. Thanks.