Maven: Failed to retrieve plugin descriptor error

Question

I configured Maven 3.0.3 and tried to download a sample project using archetypes with this command:

mvn archetype:generate -DarchetypeGroupId=org.graniteds.         


        

Answer 1

I had the same problem because I was using port 80 instead of 8080 in the settings.xml proxy configuration

Answer 2

If you created new settings.xml file instead of copy it from somewhere else, remember to put the tag inside :

<settings xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/SETTINGS/1.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/settings-1.0.0.xsd"> <proxies> ..... </proxies> </settings>

Answer 3

In my case, it was not worknig even after passing the proxy credentails.

Mistake was - forgot to remove the comment line.

<!-- proxy
 | Specification for one proxy, to be used in connecting to the network.

<proxy>
  <id>optional</id>
  <active>true</active>
  <protocol>http</protocol>
  <username>345325</username>
  <password>dfgasdfg</password>
  <host>proxy.abc.com</host>
  <port>8080</port>
  <nonProxyHosts>proxy.abc.com</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>
|-->    ----------REMOVE THIS LINE AND CLOSE It above <proxy> tag

Answer 4

In my case, even my system is not behind proxy, I got same issue. I was able to resolve by typing mvn help:archetype before mvn archetype:generate

Answer 5

I have to put

 <proxy>
  <id>optional</id>
  <active>true</active>
  <protocol>http</protocol>
  <host>Your proxy host</host>
  <port>proxy host ip</port>
  <nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>

Before

 <proxy>
  <id>optional</id>
  <active>true</active>
  <protocol>https</protocol>
  <host>Your proxy host</host>
  <port>proxy host ip</port>
  <nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>

Weird, but yes!, <protocol>http</protocol> has to come before <protocol>https</protocol>. It solved my problem. Hope it helps someone who faces connections issue even after enabling proxy settings in conf/settings.xml.

Answer 6

I was having exactly the same problem.I went to my IE setting->LAN Settings.Then copied the Address as host and port as the port and it worked. Following is the snapshot of the proxies tag in the Settings.xml that I changed.

<proxy>
  <id>optional</id>
  <active>true</active>
  <protocol>http</protocol>
  <!--username>proxyuser</username>
  <password>proxypass</password-->
  <host>webtitan</host>
  <port>8881</port>
  <!--nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts-->
</proxy>