java.net.URISyntaxException when starting HIVE

Put the following at the beginning of hive-site.xml

  <property>
    <name>system:java.io.tmpdir</name>
    <value>/tmp/hive/java</value>
  </property>
  <property>
    <name>system:user.name</name>
    <value>${user.name}</value>
  </property>

See also question