Comment 6 for bug 1586054

I just want to indicate that this issue is still happening on Ubuntu Server 16.10. Bryn Jeffries root cause does seem to be likely. Nevertheless, here's my debugging info in case it's useful:

Result of "sudo apt-get install tomcat8"

Selecting previously unselected package tomcat8.
(Reading database ... 322097 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../tomcat8_8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2_all.deb ...
Unpacking tomcat8 (8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2) ...
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu13) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
Setting up tomcat8 (8.0.32-1ubuntu1.2) ...
Creating config file /etc/default/tomcat8 with new version
Adding system user `tomcat8' (UID 142) ...
Adding new user `tomcat8' (UID 142) with group `tomcat8' ...
Not creating home directory `/usr/share/tomcat8'.
Creating config file /etc/logrotate.d/tomcat8 with new version
Job for tomcat8.service failed because the control process exited with error code. See "systemctl status tomcat8.service" and "journalctl -xe" for details.
invoke-rc.d: initscript tomcat8, action "start" failed.
dpkg: error processing package tomcat8 (--configure):
 subprocess installed post-installation script returned error exit status 1
Processing triggers for systemd (229-4ubuntu13) ...
Processing triggers for ureadahead (0.100.0-19) ...
Errors were encountered while processing:
 tomcat8
E: Sub-process /usr/bin/dpkg returned an error code (1)

Output of "systemctl status tomcat8.service":

● tomcat8.service - LSB: Start Tomcat.
   Loaded: loaded (/etc/init.d/tomcat8; bad; vendor preset: enabled)
   Active: failed (Result: exit-code) since Wed 2017-01-18 13:21:14 PST; 1min 53s ago
     Docs: man:systemd-sysv-generator(8)

Jan 18 13:21:09 sr66-blade systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start Tomcat....
Jan 18 13:21:09 sr66-blade tomcat8[22023]: * Starting Tomcat servlet engine tomcat8
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade tomcat8[22023]: ...fail!
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Start Tomcat..
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.

Relevant output of "journalctl -xe":

Jan 18 13:21:09 sr66-blade systemd[1]: Starting LSB: Start Tomcat....
-- Subject: Unit tomcat8.service has begun start-up
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit tomcat8.service has begun starting up.
Jan 18 13:21:09 sr66-blade tomcat8[22023]: * Starting Tomcat servlet engine tomcat8
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade tomcat8[22023]: ...fail!
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Control process exited, code=exited status=1
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: Failed to start LSB: Start Tomcat..
-- Subject: Unit tomcat8.service has failed
-- Defined-By: systemd
-- Support: http://lists.freedesktop.org/mailman/listinfo/systemd-devel
--
-- Unit tomcat8.service has failed.
--
-- The result is failed.
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Unit entered failed state.
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: tomcat8.service: Failed with result 'exit-code'.
Jan 18 13:21:14 sr66-blade systemd[1]: Reloading

Content in /var/log/tomcat8/catalina.out

-Djava.endorsed.dirs=/usr/share/tomcat8/endorsed is not supported. Endorsed standards and standalone APIs
in modular form will be supported via the concept of upgradeable modules.
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.