Neo4j: Error: Could not find or load main class * when executing neo4j

[ellepannitto]

Neo4j version: don't know because I can't execute neo4j version
Operating system: Ubuntu 16.04 server
API/Driver: command line

Steps to reproduce
run neo4j version
Expected behavior
the version number is shown
Actual behavior
got this error: Could not find or load main class org.neo4j.server.CommunityEntryPoint

run neo4j-import [other parameters]
Expected behavior
the import process starts
Actual behavior
got this error: Could not find or load main class org.neo4j.tooling.ImportTool

run neo4j-admin import [other parameters]
Expected behavior
the import process starts
Actual behavior
Error: Could not find or load main class org.neo4j.commandline.admin.AdminTool

[craigtaverner]

Can I ask how you installed Neo4j? Normally when you install it you install a specific version (and get a download with the version number in the installation file), so in the normal case you would know the version. My suspicion here is that this was not installed in one of the normal ways, and perhaps as a result there are missing dependencies, or missing subdirectories, for example the contents of the lib directory where the classes should be that are not being found.

My advice would be to delete and re-install with a fresh download from https://neo4j.com/download-center/#releases.

[ian-cannon]

I am seeing the same issue.

Neo4j version: don't know because I can't execute neo4j version
Operating system: Ubuntu 18.04
API/Driver: command line
Neo4j version: neo4j 3.5.6

Installed neo4j using apt-get

[jennyowen]

@ian-cannon what does java -version return? Is it the same as $JAVA_HOME?
What command do you use to start neo4j?

[philastrophist]

I'm having the same problem.

I've changed my conf file directories and the NEO4J_HOME and NEO4_CONF in order to have write permissions in the data directories but then neo4j version fails with the above error.

If I remove my environment variables, neo4j version runs correctly but then I can't write to anything so it fails later due to permissions.

Catch 22 situation.
Neo4j appears to lose where the bin is or where java is (but the which java and java -version are the same in both cases)

How do I fix this?