InvocationTargetException error during first launch of forge server universal on Linux

[polarcoyote]

I am setting up a new lan server that I just formatted to Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon 64bit with no customization.

I created a new folder and copied in the installer Jar files :
minecraft_server.1.12.2.jar

forge-1.12.2-14.23.4.2749-installer.jar

 

Ran the vanilla jar with no errors completed first world spawn.

Forge installServer ran with no errors.

 

Trying to run the universal.jar gives the following error:

A problem occurred running the Server launcher.java.lang.reflect.InvocationTargetException
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:62)
    at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
    at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:564)
    at net.minecraftforge.fml.relauncher.ServerLaunchWrapper.run(ServerLaunchWrapper.java:70)
    at net.minecraftforge.fml.relauncher.ServerLaunchWrapper.main(ServerLaunchWrapper.java:34)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassCastException: java.base/jdk.internal.loader.ClassLoaders$AppClassLoader cannot be cast to java.base/java.net.URLClassLoader
    at net.minecraft.launchwrapper.Launch.<init>(Launch.java:34)
    at net.minecraft.launchwrapper.Launch.main(Launch.java:28)
    ... 6 more

command line : sudo java -jar forge-1.12.2-14.23.4.2749-universal.jar nogui

tried with memory switches , without sudo and without nogui, all had same error.

universal.jar was initially not executable. corrected with chmod

No log files are being generated.

folder contents:

libraries  

logs
banned-ips.json

minecraft_server.1.12.2.jar
banned-players.json

ops.json
eula.txt

server.properties
forge-1.12.2-14.23.4.2749-installer.jar

usercache.json
forge-1.12.2-14.23.4.2749-installer.jar.log

whitelist.json
forge-1.12.2-14.23.4.2749-universal.jar

world

 

 

 

 

[DaemonUmbra]

You have Java 9+ installed, you need to use Java 8