BUG! exception in phase ‘semantic analysis’ in source unit ‘_BuildScript_’ Unsupported class file major version 61

Issue:

• In Arch Linux, when try to execute npm run android, it throws the following error.

BUILD FAILED in 399ms

error Failed to install the app. Make sure you have the Android development environment set up: https://reactnative.dev/docs/environment-setup.
Error: Command failed: ./gradlew app:installDebug -PreactNativeDevServerPort=8081

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
Could not open settings generic class cache for settings file '/srv/react-native/first-app/android/settings.gradle' (/home/chrislee/.gradle/caches/7.0.2/scripts/c3f08d7f60eavra0w0k1rfbn8).
> BUG! exception in phase 'semantic analysis' in source unit '_BuildScript_' Unsupported class file major version 61

Solution:

• Do not use Java 17 Open JDK as it’s not compatible at time of writing.
• Check Gradle version

$ ./android/gradlew --version

------------------------------------------------------------
Gradle 7.0.2
------------------------------------------------------------

Build time:   2021-05-14 12:02:31 UTC
Revision:     1ef1b260d39daacbf9357f9d8594a8a743e2152e

Kotlin:       1.4.31
Groovy:       3.0.7
Ant:          Apache Ant(TM) version 1.10.9 compiled on September 27 2020
JVM:          17 (Oracle Corporation 17+35)
OS:           Linux 5.14.15-arch1-1 amd64

• Check Java compatibility against Gradle version – https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/compatibility.html
• Since OpenJDK 16 does not exist in AUR – https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/java#OpenJDK, install OpenJDK 11

$ sudo pacman -S jdk11-openjdk

• Change Java version

$ sudo archlinux-java status
Available Java environments:
  java-11-openjdk
  java-17-openjdk (default)
  java-8-openjdk
$ sudo archlinux-java set java-11-openjdk
$ java -version
openjdk version "11.0.12" 2021-07-20
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 11.0.12+7)
OpenJDK 64-Bit Server VM (build 11.0.12+7, mixed mode)