I've done some additional testing recently using the above setup, and three versions of Ubuntu with and without Pulseaudio.
Java Version
Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Enabled 12.04 i386 Fail [1]: 2 Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Disabled 12.04 i386 Works: 6
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Enabled 11.10 i386 Works: 3 Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Disabled 11.10 i386 Works: 2 Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Enabled 11.10 i386 Works: 2 Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Disabled 11.10 i386 Works:1
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Enabled 10.04 i386 Fail [1]: 1 Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Disabled 10.04 i386 Works: 1
I've done some additional testing recently using the above setup, and three versions of Ubuntu with and without Pulseaudio.
Java Version
Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Enabled 12.04 i386 Fail [1]: 2
Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Disabled 12.04 i386 Works: 6
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Enabled 11.10 i386 Works: 3
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Disabled 11.10 i386 Works: 2
Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Enabled 11.10 i386 Works: 2
Oracle JRE 7 (1.7.0_05) PulseAudio Disabled 11.10 i386 Works:1
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Enabled 10.04 i386 Fail [1]: 1
Sun JRE (1.6.0_31) PulseAudio Disabled 10.04 i386 Works: 1