I hope this is one topic for this list, if not a redirect would be greatly appreciated. I am trying to set up a simple servlet, which according to various tutorials, should work. However it doesnt, and I am unable to find out why. The tomcat manager simply tells me "FAIL - Application at context path /myservlet could not be started" and thats it. My question is how can I tease out enough information to discover what the problem is? I am a decently experienced programmer, so _any_ sekret kungfu would be helpful. This is a high priority for my company, so thats all Im working on at the moment, but Im stuck without the tools to debug+solve my own problem ATM. Java Source: import javax.servlet.http.*; import java.io.*; public class TestWebApp extends HttpServlet { static final long serialVersionUID =0; public void doPost (HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp) throws IOException { resp.setContentType ("text/html"); PrintWriter out = resp.getWriter (); out.println ("w00t"); } } web.xml: <web-app xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3c.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/j2ee/web-app_2_4.xsd" version="2.4> <servlet> <servlet-name>testapp</servlet-name> <servlet-class>TestWebApp</servlet-class> </servlet> <servlet-mapping> <servlet-name>testapp</servlet-name> <url-pattern>/myservlet/*.do</url-pattern> </servlet-mapping> </web-app> deployed in $CATALINA_HOME/webapps/myservlet ./myservlet/WEB-INF/web.xml ./myservlet/WEB-INF/classes/TestWebApp.class ./myservlet/WEB-INF/lib When I try to start the servlet the relevant output of tail /var/log/tomcat5/localhost_log.2005-12-13.txt: 2005-12-13 11:19:56 StandardContext[/manager]HTMLManager: init: Associated with Deployer 'localhost' 2005-12-13 11:19:56 StandardContext[/manager]HTMLManager: init: Global resources are available 2005-12-13 11:19:56 StandardContext[/manager]HTMLManager: list: Listing contexts for virtual host 'localhost' 2005-12-13 11:20:02 StandardContext[/manager]HTMLManager: start: Starting web application at '/myservlet' 2005-12-13 11:20:02 StandardContext[/manager]HTMLManager: list: Listing contexts for virtual host 'localhost' Which errors out with: FAIL - Application at context path /myservlet could not be started ps. Should be an up-to-date stock fedora core 4: tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-javadoc-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-jasper-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-jasper-javadoc-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-webapps-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-servlet-2.4-api-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc tomcat5-admin-webapps-5.0.30-5jpp_6fc java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-debuginfo-1.4.2.0-40jpp_31rh.FC4.2 java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-devel-1.4.2.0-40jpp_31rh.FC4.2 java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-1.4.2.0-40jpp_31rh.FC4.2 libgcj-4.0.2-8.fc4 libgcj-devel-4.0.2-8.fc4 libgcj-src-4.0.2-8.fc4 java-1.4.2-gcj-compat-src-1.4.2.0-40jpp_31rh.FC4.2 but I also have the sun sdk installed: /usr/sbin/alternatives --display java java - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_04/bin/java - priority 2 slave rmiregistry: /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_04/bin/rmiregistry slave jre_exports: (null) slave jre: /usr/java/jdk1.5.0_04/jre/ /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java - priority 1420 slave rmiregistry: /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/rmiregistry slave jre_exports: /usr/lib/jvm-exports/jre-1.4.2-gcj slave jre: /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/jre-1.4.2-gcj/bin/java. /usr/sbin/alternatives --display javac javac - status is auto. link currently points to /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javac /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javac - priority 1420 slave java_sdk: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj slave java_sdk_exports: /usr/lib/jvm-exports/java-1.4.2-gcj slave javadoc: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javadoc slave javah: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javah slave jar: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/jar slave rmic: /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/rmic Current `best' version is /usr/lib/jvm/java-1.4.2-gcj/bin/javac. Cheers, Ryan