Arch Linux

gattu_marrudu

Member

Registered: 2008-03-29

Posts: 42

kafka 4.0.0 fails to start: no meta.properties found

I have just installed kafka-4.0.0-5 from the extra repo (fresh install).

Accoroding to the (sparse) instructions on ArchWiki, I just ran

sudo systemctl start kafka

then

$ systemctl status kafka
× kafka.service - Kafka server
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/kafka.service; disabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Fri 2025-05-09 19:52:54 CEST; 17min ago
   Duration: 1.355s
 Invocation: a5c8318ad6e84186ba578f8f5cad7625
    Process: 1707 ExecStart=/usr/bin/kafka-server-start.sh /etc/kafka/server.properties (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Main PID: 1707 (code=exited, status=1/FAILURE)
   Mem peak: 135.5M
        CPU: 1.893s

mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]: java.lang.RuntimeException: No readable meta.properties files found.
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at org.apache.kafka.metadata.properties.MetaPropertiesEnsemble.verify(MetaPropertiesEnsemble.java:480) ~[kafka-metadata-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at kafka.server.KafkaRaftServer$.initializeLogDirs(KafkaRaftServer.scala:141) ~[kafka_2.13-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at kafka.server.KafkaRaftServer.<init>(KafkaRaftServer.scala:56) ~[kafka_2.13-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at kafka.Kafka$.buildServer(Kafka.scala:68) ~[kafka_2.13-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at kafka.Kafka$.main(Kafka.scala:75) [kafka_2.13-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:53 maddalaptop kafka-server-start.sh[1707]:         at kafka.Kafka.main(Kafka.scala) [kafka_2.13-4.0.0.jar:?]
mag 09 19:52:54 maddalaptop systemd[1]: kafka.service: Main process exited, code=exited, status=1/FAILURE
mag 09 19:52:54 maddalaptop systemd[1]: kafka.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
mag 09 19:52:54 maddalaptop systemd[1]: kafka.service: Consumed 1.893s CPU time, 135.5M memory peak.

I cannot find meta.properties anywhere on disk. Looking up online Kafka user questions from other environments, I can't see any obvious setup step missing. I am new to Kafka BTW.

Any hints?

intgr

Member

Registered: 2009-10-02

Posts: 45

Re: kafka 4.0.0 fails to start: no meta.properties found

I had the same issue. Reinstalling kafka & deleting all config files did not fix it.

I think it's an Arch packaging bug with 4.0.

After downgrading to kafka 3.9.0, it works again. I added the package to /etc/pacman.conf IgnorePkg = kafka setting, so Pacman wouldn't upgrade it.

You can  get older packages from the Arch Linux Archive https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/Arch_Linux_Archive

Last edited by intgr (2025-05-18 13:01:01)