Issues and limitations on Linux

Known issues or limitations that you might encounter in specific Linux® system environments, or configurations.

XRender drawing issue: no text on AWT components

If you are using Ubuntu version 12.04 with an Intel graphics chip, and text is not displayed on AWT components, specify the following property on the command-line when you start your Java™ application: -Dsun.java2d.xrender=false. This property avoids the issue by disabling the XRender extension.

This limitation is due to Bug 48045 in X-Window.

Java NIO.2 file system problems on a ReiserFS file system

Heavily loaded systems with a ReiserFS file system might experience problems when using the Java NIO.2 file system facilities. The cause of the problem is with the ReiserFS file system, and results in inconsistent information being passed to the Java technology subsystem. To avoid this issue, use an alternative file system.

Desktop API

If one or more GNOME libraries are not available, the Desktop API might not work.

Unicode Shift_JIS code page alias

Note: This limitation applies to Japanese users only.

The Unicode code page alias "\u30b7\u30d5\u30c8\u7b26\u53f7\u5316\u8868\u73fe" for Shift_JIS has been removed. If you use this code page in your applications, replace it with Shift_JIS.

GUI applications, such as the JConsole monitoring tool, on 64-bit Ubuntu with a 32-bit JVM

When running a 32-bit JVM on a 64-bit Ubuntu system, GUI applications do not start because some AWT libraries are missing. To fix the problem, install the 32-bit libraries provided in the ia32-libs package:

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs

If the libraries are not available, the following exception is thrown:

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.UnsatisfiedLinkError: awt (An exception was 
pending after running JNI_OnLoad)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibraryWithPath(ClassLoader.java:993)
        at java.lang.ClassLoader.loadLibraryWithClassLoader(ClassLoader.java:962)
        at java.lang.System.loadLibrary(System.java:465)
        ... lines removed for clarity ...

If problems are encountered with DNS name resolution, install the package lib32nss-mdns.

Globalization on Ubuntu

Note: This limitation applies to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese language users of Ubuntu only.

Chinese, Korean, and Japanese locales do not display the correct fonts if CJK fonts are not installed.

GTK Look and Feel and NullPointerException exception

Note: This limitation applies to DBCS environments only.

If your application fails with a NullPointerException exception when using the GTK Look and Feel, unset the GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID environment variable.

Position for ibus composition window is incorrect on Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6

This problem occurs when using the ibus input method. The effect is that the Input Method Editor (IME) composition window is not displayed under the cursor position. An additional effect is that the composition window does not follow the xterm window if it is moved.

This problem affects IBM® POWER® and s390 platforms only.

If you encounter this problem, refer to RHBA-2011:0518-1.

BIOS settings on AMD64 SMP systems

The Node memory interleaving BIOS setting must be set to DISABLED. Otherwise, unpredictable results might occur, including application crashes and hangs. This instruction is in accordance with recommendations from AMD.

JNI calls with more than eight parameters on PPC platforms

PPC platforms only: If your code uses JNI calls, and any specific call has more than eight float or double parameters, your JNI C code must be compiled with the gcc-2.95.3 Free Software Foundation (FSF) level of GNU C Compiler (GCC) or later.

Input Method Editor (IME) character composition

If you are using Smart Common Input Method/Intelligent Input Bus (SCIM/IBus) as the input method server, complete the character composition before you change focus. Do not change focus rapidly with key input because your application might not receive the key event properly.

Note: This limitation applies only to Chinese, Korean, and Japanese language users.

Runtime crash when running on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server (SLES) 11 service pack 2 (Linux only)

When running on SLES 11 service pack 2, with a kernel level before 3.0.31-0.9.1, the JVM can crash. This problem occurs when calling the operating system APIs mmap() and munmap(). Sometimes the memory returned from mmap() overlaps with a previous allocation that was not freed. To fix this problem, upgrade to a version of the kernel that is the same or later than Jun-01-2012 3.0.31-0.9.1.

Swing application problems with GTK look and feel

Swing applications might not render GUI components correctly if the GTK libraries are not correctly installed on your system. This issue is not seen on Version 7, which is not sensitive to the same conditions. If you receive console messages that indicate libraries are missing, install those libraries to rectify the problem.