Gong Server on Red Hat Linux JSP errors and Moodle

I'm trying to integrate a voice recording software called Gong (http://gong.ust.hk/) into an online instruction package called Moodle (http://moodle.org).  I cannot get Gong running on its own, so I'm not even at the Moodle part yet.  Gong requires Tomcat and a specific version of the Java 2 SDK to work. I am following their installation instructions to the letter but when I try to log into Gong I get the following JSP error:

HTTP Status 500 -
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type Exception report
message
description The server encountered an internal error () that prevented it from fulfilling this request.
exception
javax.servlet.ServletException
        org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.doHandlePageException(PageContextImpl.java:825)
        org.apache.jasper.runtime.PageContextImpl.handlePageException(PageContextImpl.java:758)
        org.apache.jsp.admin.login_jsp._jspService(login_jsp.java:183)
        org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:94)
        javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:324)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:292)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:236)
        javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
root cause
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError
        gong.Utility.rgbToColor(Utility.java:708)
        gong.admin.User.fromXMLElement(User.java:404)
        gong.admin.User.<init>(User.java:202)
        gong.admin.UserList.fromXMLElement(UserList.java:143)
        gong.admin.UserList.load(UserList.java:94)
        gong.admin.UserList.<init>(UserList.java:78)
        org.apache.jsp.admin.login_jsp._jspService(login_jsp.java:62)
        org.apache.jasper.runtime.HttpJspBase.service(HttpJspBase.java:94)
        javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServletWrapper.service(JspServletWrapper.java:324)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.serviceJspFile(JspServlet.java:292)
        org.apache.jasper.servlet.JspServlet.service(JspServlet.java:236)
        javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802)
note The full stack trace of the root cause is available in the Apache Tomcat/5.0.28 logs.
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Apache Tomcat/5.0.28


I have tried several different versions of Java, and I've even tried an entirely different box with a different distro and I'm still having the same problems.  I've written down my installation instructions from start to finish, hoping that someone can see a mistake I'm making along the way.

With a fresh install of Red Hat Enterprise 5 or Fedora 7, same results either way.  With the default install there is no Java on the machine.

1)      I download the Java 2 SDK (1.4.2.08) from Suns archive at http://java.sun.com/products/archive/j2se/1.4.2_08/index.html
2)      I run the command chmod +x j2sdk-1_4_2_08-linux-i586.bin
3)      I run the install with ./j2sdk-1_4_2_08-linux-i586.bin.  I agree to the Sun legal agreement and the files are extracted.
4)      I move the newly extracted directory to /usr/java with mv j2sdk1.4.2_08 /usr/java
5)      I add JAVA_HOME="/usr/java/j2sdk1.4.2" to /etc/profile
6)      I add export JAVA_HOME to /etc/profile
7)      I reboot
8)      I type echo $JAVA_HOME to make sure the environment variable is working
9)      I create a tomcat group with groupadd tomcat
10)      I create a tomcat user with useradd -g tomcat tomcat
11)      I download Tomcat 5.0.28 from http://mirrors.24-7-solutions.net/pub/apache/tomcat/tomcat-5/v5.0.28/bin/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28.tar.gz
12)      I extract it with tar xvzf jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28.tar.gz
13)      I move it to /usr/local/ with mv jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28 /usr/local/
14)      I create a symbolic link with ln -s /usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28 /usr/local/jakarta-tomcat
15)      Change group and owner with chown tomcat.tomcat /usr/local/jakarta-tomcat and chown -R tomcat.tomcat /usr/local/jakarta-tomcat-5.0.28
16)      I go to /jakarta-tomcat/bin and type startup.sh and make sure Tomcat starts with no errors.  Then I shut it down.
17)      I add the following to the tomcat-users file <role rolename="admin" /><role rolename="manager" /><user username="administrator" password="administratorpassword" roles="admin,manager"/>
18)      I download Gong from http://gong.ust.hk/downloads/gongserver-5.0.4S-unix.zip
19)      I extract the Gong zip to /usr/local/gong
20)      I start Tomcat with startup.sh
21)      I go to http://localhost:8080 and click on Tomcat Administration
22)      I type in the username administrator and password administratorpassword
23)      I click on Tomcat Server (on the left) and then Catalina and then Host
24)      On the right frame I choose New Context from the drop down menu
25)      In the New Context I set the Document Base to /usr/local/gong
26)      In the Path I set /gong
27)      I click Save and then Commit Changes
28)      I reboot
29)      After reboot I go to http://localhost:8080/gong/admin and get the Gong Administration Page
30)      I type in the username admin and the password admin.  At this point I get the 500 error.

This has been driving me crazy for over a week now.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.