I downloaded the server 1.7.2 jar from the minecraft.net site, tried to fire it up, and got the following:
$ java -Xmx1024M -Xms1024M -jar minecraft_server.jar nogui Exception in thread "main" java.lang.VerifyError: (class: net/minecraft/server/MinecraftServer, method: v signature: ()V) Can only throw Throwable objects
(The file was named minecraft_server.1.7.2.jar when I downloaded it; I tried renaming it; creating a symlink to it, etc. – it doesn't seem to affect the result; also, I tried reinstalling Java, but that didn't change anything, either.)
One other tidbit: when I try to start the client, I get the conjugate error,
Exception in thread "main" java.lang.VerifyError: (class: ban, method: f signature: ()V) catch_type not a subclass of Throwable at net.minecraft.client.main.Main.main(SourceFile:72)
I tried the 1.6.4 server jar, and it hits this problem:
... 2013-11-16 23:01:58 [INFO] Preparing spawn area: 11% java.lang.NoSuchFieldError: b at abw.a(SourceFile:1982) at abw.c(SourceFile:2002) at abw.A(SourceFile:1964) at abw.f(SourceFile:308) at afm.a(SourceFile:78) at aet.a(SourceFile:444) at jr.a(SourceFile:168) at adr.a(SourceFile:732) at jr.c(SourceFile:105) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.f(SourceFile:230) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.a(SourceFile:200) at is.d(SourceFile:182) at net.minecraft.server.MinecraftServer.run(SourceFile:315) at hi.run(SourceFile:583)
and then it stops the server.