Basic pyspark results in Py4JJavaError - python-3.x

Question

I am encountering an error for something that was working only 30 minutes ago (and I haven't made any changes). I am using Spark 2.3.0, and Python 3.5.4. I have a SparkSession called spark, and I am simply trying to see the list of tables:
spark.catalog.listTables()
This is now causing the following error:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Py4JJavaError Traceback (most recent call last)
<ipython-input-9-e71b94cb765f> in <module>()
----> 1 spark.catalog.listTables()
~/spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7/python/pyspark/sql/catalog.py in listTables(self, dbName)
82 iter = self._jcatalog.listTables(dbName).toLocalIterator()
83 tables = []
---> 84 while iter.hasNext():
85 jtable = iter.next()
86 tables.append(Table(
~/spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7/python/lib/py4j-0.10.6-src.zip/py4j/java_gateway.py in __call__(self, *args)
1158 answer = self.gateway_client.send_command(command)
1159 return_value = get_return_value(
-> 1160 answer, self.gateway_client, self.target_id, self.name)
1161
1162 for temp_arg in temp_args:
~/spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7/python/pyspark/sql/utils.py in deco(*a, **kw)
61 def deco(*a, **kw):
62 try:
---> 63 return f(*a, **kw)
64 except py4j.protocol.Py4JJavaError as e:
65 s = e.java_exception.toString()
~/spark-2.3.0-bin-hadoop2.7/python/lib/py4j-0.10.6-src.zip/py4j/protocol.py in get_return_value(answer, gateway_client, target_id, name)
318 raise Py4JJavaError(
319 "An error occurred while calling {0}{1}{2}.\n".
--> 320 format(target_id, ".", name), value)
321 else:
322 raise Py4JError(
Py4JJavaError: An error occurred while calling o33.hasNext.
: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.spark.util.ClosureCleaner$.getClassReader(ClosureCleaner.scala:46)
at org.apache.spark.util.FieldAccessFinder$$anon$3$$anonfun$visitMethodInsn$2.apply(ClosureCleaner.scala:449)
at org.apache.spark.util.FieldAccessFinder$$anon$3$$anonfun$visitMethodInsn$2.apply(ClosureCleaner.scala:432)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$WithFilter$$anonfun$foreach$1.apply(TraversableLike.scala:733)
at scala.collection.mutable.HashMap$$anon$1$$anonfun$foreach$2.apply(HashMap.scala:103)
at scala.collection.mutable.HashMap$$anon$1$$anonfun$foreach$2.apply(HashMap.scala:103)
at scala.collection.mutable.HashTable$class.foreachEntry(HashTable.scala:230)
at scala.collection.mutable.HashMap.foreachEntry(HashMap.scala:40)
at scala.collection.mutable.HashMap$$anon$1.foreach(HashMap.scala:103)
at scala.collection.TraversableLike$WithFilter.foreach(TraversableLike.scala:732)
at org.apache.spark.util.FieldAccessFinder$$anon$3.visitMethodInsn(ClosureCleaner.scala:432)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.a(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.b(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.xbean.asm5.ClassReader.accept(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.spark.util.ClosureCleaner$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$util$ClosureCleaner$$clean$14.apply(ClosureCleaner.scala:262)
at org.apache.spark.util.ClosureCleaner$$anonfun$org$apache$spark$util$ClosureCleaner$$clean$14.apply(ClosureCleaner.scala:261)
at scala.collection.immutable.List.foreach(List.scala:381)
at org.apache.spark.util.ClosureCleaner$.org$apache$spark$util$ClosureCleaner$$clean(ClosureCleaner.scala:261)
at org.apache.spark.util.ClosureCleaner$.clean(ClosureCleaner.scala:159)
at org.apache.spark.SparkContext.clean(SparkContext.scala:2292)
at org.apache.spark.SparkContext.runJob(SparkContext.scala:2066)
at org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD$$anonfun$toLocalIterator$1.org$apache$spark$rdd$RDD$$anonfun$$collectPartition$1(RDD.scala:954)
at org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD$$anonfun$toLocalIterator$1$$anonfun$apply$30.apply(RDD.scala:956)
at org.apache.spark.rdd.RDD$$anonfun$toLocalIterator$1$$anonfun$apply$30.apply(RDD.scala:956)
at scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$12.nextCur(Iterator.scala:434)
at scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$12.hasNext(Iterator.scala:440)
at scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$12.hasNext(Iterator.scala:439)
at scala.collection.Iterator$$anon$11.hasNext(Iterator.scala:408)
at scala.collection.convert.Wrappers$IteratorWrapper.hasNext(Wrappers.scala:30)
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 py4j.reflection.MethodInvoker.invoke(MethodInvoker.java:244)
at py4j.reflection.ReflectionEngine.invoke(ReflectionEngine.java:357)
at py4j.Gateway.invoke(Gateway.java:282)
at py4j.commands.AbstractCommand.invokeMethod(AbstractCommand.java:132)
at py4j.commands.CallCommand.execute(CallCommand.java:79)
at py4j.GatewayConnection.run(GatewayConnection.java:214)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:844)
Calling the toPandas method on a Spark data frame is causing a similar error now, too. Any help is greatly appreciated!
EDIT: This is all taking place in a Jupyter notebook.

Answer 1

Turns out it was a Java (JDK) version issue. Once I reverted from version 9.0.4 back to JDK 8, this resolved the issue.