`groovyConsole` can not start on Ubuntu 18.04 with java 8, how to fix?

Question

when I run groovyConsole from terminal, it give up with an exception:

$ groovyConsole 
java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.GroovyStarter.rootLoader(GroovyStarter.java:116)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.tools.GroovyStarter.main(GroovyStarter.java:138)
Caused by: groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: javax.swing.JMenu.setMnemonic() is applicable for argument types: (java.lang.String) values: [F]
Possible solutions: setMnemonic(char), setMnemonic(int), getMnemonic()
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.unwrap(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:71)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.unwrap(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:77)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.callCurrent(PogoMetaClassSite.java:80)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:177)
    at groovy.ui.view.BasicMenuBar$_run_closure1.doCall(BasicMenuBar.groovy:22)
    at groovy.ui.view.BasicMenuBar$_run_closure1.doCall(BasicMenuBar.groovy)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:104)
    at groovy.lang.MetaMethod.doMethodInvoke(MetaMethod.java:325)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.metaclass.ClosureMetaClass.invokeMethod(ClosureMetaClass.java:264)
    at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1035)
    at groovy.lang.Closure.call(Closure.java:420)
    at groovy.lang.Closure.call(Closure.java:414)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.dispatchNodeCall(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:899)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.doInvokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:791)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.invokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:511)
    at groovy.util.FactoryInterceptorMetaClass.invokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1322)
    at groovy.lang.GroovyObjectSupport.invokeMethod(GroovyObjectSupport.java:46)
    at groovy.lang.Script.invokeMethod(Script.java:80)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.callCurrent(PogoMetaClassSite.java:74)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallCurrent(CallSiteArray.java:51)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.callCurrent(PogoMetaClassSite.java:83)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:169)
    at groovy.ui.view.BasicMenuBar.run(BasicMenuBar.groovy:21)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.build(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1181)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.build(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1164)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:104)
    at groovy.lang.MetaMethod.doMethodInvoke(MetaMethod.java:325)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.metaclass.ClosureMetaClass.invokeMethod(ClosureMetaClass.java:352)
    at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1035)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.callCurrent(PogoMetaClassSite.java:68)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:169)
    at groovy.ui.Console$__clinit__closure25.doCall(Console.groovy:267)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:104)
    at groovy.lang.MetaMethod.doMethodInvoke(MetaMethod.java:325)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.metaclass.ClosureMetaClass.invokeMethod(ClosureMetaClass.java:264)
    at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1035)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.call(PogoMetaClassSite.java:41)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:128)
    at groovy.ui.ConsoleView$_run_closure1.doCall(ConsoleView.groovy:62)
    at groovy.ui.ConsoleView$_run_closure1.doCall(ConsoleView.groovy)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:498)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.reflection.CachedMethod.invoke(CachedMethod.java:104)
    at groovy.lang.MetaMethod.doMethodInvoke(MetaMethod.java:325)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.metaclass.ClosureMetaClass.invokeMethod(ClosureMetaClass.java:264)
    at groovy.lang.MetaClassImpl.invokeMethod(MetaClassImpl.java:1035)
    at groovy.lang.Closure.call(Closure.java:420)
    at groovy.lang.Closure.call(Closure.java:414)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.dispatchNodeCall(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:899)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.doInvokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:791)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.invokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:511)
    at groovy.util.FactoryInterceptorMetaClass.invokeMethod(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1322)
    at groovy.lang.GroovyObjectSupport.invokeMethod(GroovyObjectSupport.java:46)
    at groovy.lang.Script.invokeMethod(Script.java:80)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.PogoMetaClassSite.callCurrent(PogoMetaClassSite.java:74)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallCurrent(CallSiteArray.java:51)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:157)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:177)
    at groovy.ui.ConsoleView.run(ConsoleView.groovy:59)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.build(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1181)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport.build(FactoryBuilderSupport.java:1164)
    at groovy.util.FactoryBuilderSupport$build$4.call(Unknown Source)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:47)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:116)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:128)
    at groovy.ui.Console.run(Console.groovy:308)
    at groovy.ui.Console$run$1.callCurrent(Unknown Source)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallCurrent(CallSiteArray.java:51)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:157)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callCurrent(AbstractCallSite.java:169)
    at groovy.ui.Console.run(Console.groovy:271)
    at groovy.ui.Console$run$0.call(Unknown Source)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:47)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:116)
    at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:120)
    at groovy.ui.Console.main(Console.groovy:205)
    ... 6 more

    enter code here

My system is:

$ groovy --version
Groovy Version: 2.4.16 JVM: 1.8.0_222 Vendor: Private Build OS: Linux
$ cat /etc/os-release 
NAME="Ubuntu"
VERSION="18.04.3 LTS (Bionic Beaver)"

How to avoid this error?

Answer 1

You are facing a known issue reported in Debian , Ubuntu and Groovy issues trackers.

Issue has been fixed in Groovy version 2.6.0-alpha-1 . The fix was backported (see Debian patch ) in Ubuntu package version 2.4.17-4ubuntu1 and Debian package version 2.4.17-2 .

In Ubuntu Bionic 18.04 LTS, Groovy package version available is 2.4.16-1ubuntu1~18.04.1 (and 2.4.16-2 in Debian).
Version 2.4.17-4ubuntu1 is available in Ubuntu Focal 20.04 LTS (currently 2.4.20-1 in Debian testing).

So I guess the easiest solution for you might be to upgrade to Ubuntu Focal 20.04 LTS version.

An alternative would be to install only groovy package from Focal 20.04 and keep others packages unmodified (ie keep version provided by Ubuntu Bionic 18.04). Such solution involve package pinning. You can read more about it in Ubuntu wiki , Debian wiki or in this excellent Debian administrator's handbook .