mvn archetype:generate does not work-no plugin found for prefix 'archetype'

The other thing that could be going wrong is that your machine is behind a firewall or proxy so your box is not able to hit http://repo1.maven.org/maven2. Try accessing this URL directly in a browser or something to test if you are able to make the request.

The command you should be using to generate a project with an archetype is...

mvn archetype:generate

The command you posted in your question was wrong (missing the first 'e' in archetype). I assume this is just a typo in SO though because the error you posted had archetype spelled correctly.

I believe this error will occur if you are trying to execute this command from a directory that already has a pom.xml file in it. It will try to find an archetype plugin configuration inside the existing pom.xml file.

Try the command again in an empty directory, or at least in one that doesn't have a pom.xml file and it should work.

In case you are behind coporate firewall , configure the proxy setting using "settings.xml" under /conf directory username,password,host&port values need to be provided.

 |
<proxy>
  <id>optional</id>
  <active>true</active>
  <protocol>http</protocol>
  <username>proxyuser</username>
  <password>proxypass</password>
  <host>proxy.host.net</host>
  <port>80</port>
  <nonProxyHosts>local.net|some.host.com</nonProxyHosts>
</proxy>