You probably have a similar error:
============= begin nested exception, level (1) ===========
java.sql.SQLException: Directory /var/lib/hive/metastore/metastore_db cannot be created.
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.SQLExceptionFactory40.getSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.Util.generateCsSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.wrapInSQLException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.TransactionResourceImpl.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection.handleException(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection.createDatabase(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection30.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.impl.jdbc.EmbedConnection40.<init>(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.jdbc.Driver40.getNewEmbedConnection(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.jdbc.InternalDriver.connect(Unknown Source)
at org.apache.derby.jdbc.AutoloadedDriver.connect(Unknown Source)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:582)
at java.sql.DriverManager.getConnection(DriverManager.java:185)
at org.apache.commons.dbcp.DriverManagerConnectionFactory.createConnection(DriverManagerConnectionFactory.java:75)
at org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolableConnectionFactory.makeObject(PoolableConnectionFactory.java:582)
at org.apache.commons.pool.impl.GenericObjectPool.borrowObject(GenericObjectPool.java:1148)
at org.apache.commons.dbcp.PoolingDataSource.getConnection(PoolingDataSource.java:106)
at org.datanucleus.store.rdbms.ConnectionFactoryImpl$ManagedConnectionImpl.getConnection(ConnectionFactoryImpl.java
:521)
It happens because /var/lib/hive/metastore does not belong to 'hue'. Could you do a 'sudo chown hue:hue /var/lib/hive/metastore' (or 'your_user' running Hue instead of hue'. You can also 'sudo chmod -R 777 /var/lib/hive/metastore' if you are on a test machine)?
What does 'ls /var/lib/hive/metastore' give you now?
One way to avoid this problem is to not use a Derby DB but a recommended 'MySql Database':
https://ccp.cloudera.com/display/CDH4DOC/Hive+Installation#HiveInstallation-UsingtheEmbeddedMetaStore%28Derby%29Romain