Hi! So, i downloaded forge for minecraft 1.16.5 which works well for the client part but when i try to make a server with it it won't start. i tried opening the forge-1.16.5-36.2.19 jar file but it dooesn't seem to do anything. If i try to open the minecraft_server.1.16.5 jar file instead, it seems to work fine. So i was wondering if there's something that i'm doing wrong maybe, or if there's another issue i'm not aware of. 

Thank you in advance!

I'm new to this, how would i open it from command line? do you mean from like cmd? 

ok i've done it. this is what i got:

 

G:\1.16.5 server mods>java -jar forge-1.16.5-36.2.19.jar
2021-11-24 21:42:30,615 main WARN Advanced terminal features are not available in this environment
[21:42:30] [main/INFO] [cp.mo.mo.Launcher/MODLAUNCHER]: ModLauncher running: args [--gameDir, ., --launchTarget, fmlserver, --fml.forgeVersion, 36.2.19, --fml.mcpVersion, 20210115.111550, --fml.mcVersion, 1.16.5, --fml.forgeGroup, net.minecraftforge]
[21:42:30] [main/INFO] [cp.mo.mo.Launcher/MODLAUNCHER]: ModLauncher 8.0.9+86+master.3cf110c starting: java version 17.0.1 by Oracle Corporation
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.IllegalAccessError: class cpw.mods.modlauncher.SecureJarHandler (in unnamed module @0x123f1134) cannot access class sun.security.util.ManifestEntryVerifier (in module java.base) because module java.base does not export sun.security.util to unnamed module @0x123f1134
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.SecureJarHandler.lambda$static$1(SecureJarHandler.java:41)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.api.LamdbaExceptionUtils.uncheck(LamdbaExceptionUtils.java:95)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.SecureJarHandler.<clinit>(SecureJarHandler.java:41)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.lambda$new$6(Launcher.java:55)
        at java.base/java.util.concurrent.ConcurrentHashMap.computeIfAbsent(ConcurrentHashMap.java:1708)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.api.TypesafeMap.computeIfAbsent(TypesafeMap.java:52)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.api.TypesafeMap.computeIfAbsent(TypesafeMap.java:47)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Environment.computePropertyIfAbsent(Environment.java:62)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.<init>(Launcher.java:55)
        at cpw.mods.modlauncher.Launcher.main(Launcher.java:66)
        at net.minecraftforge.server.ServerMain$Runner.runLauncher(ServerMain.java:63)
        at net.minecraftforge.server.ServerMain$Runner.access$100(ServerMain.java:60)
        at net.minecraftforge.server.ServerMain.main(ServerMain.java:57)

Once i installed java 11, which i did, how do i make the .jar file open using that version and not java 17? this should be my last question, if it works hopefully.

I tried opening it like this:
G:\jdk 11\jdk-11\bin>java.exe -jar forge-1.16.5-36.2.19.jar
Error: Unable to access jarfile forge-1.16.5-36.2.19.jar

and that was the result. i'm not sure if i just used the wrong method or what i did wrong, 
sorry for all the bother, it's my first time having any issues with a forge server

It finally worked, thanks a lot for the help!

I have exactly the same problem, but my question is how to replace the Java file path in bath.start in the last answer