Keyboard doesn't work within a java applet (Sun Secure Global Destop)

[Michi26]

I use Sun Secure Global Desktop to login to my university. Unfortunately the keyboard doesn't work (so I actually can't do the login).
For those who don't know about Sun Secure Global Desktop, here is a demo from sun: https://sgddemo.sun.com/

When I start the webtop, then I can choose a machine (or application) on the right side of the screen. After this a dialog gets displayed and I have to input my username/password. And this doesn't work. The keyboard doesn't work at all. The cursor blinks in the input field and when I press a key nothing happens.

I think this might be a general problem of java applets (not just with Sun Secure Global Desktop).

[misterbeebee (ubuntu-mrbb)]

Same problem with Ubuntu 7.04 on a Dell and Java 1.5. Can't send keyboard events to Java applets in Firefox.

[Michi26 (michi26)]

Some additional information:

Sun Secure Global Desktop worked on Edgy without any problems. When I started Sun Secure Global Desktop on Edgy then an tray-icon in the gnome panel was shown. In feisty there is no tray-icon at all (I don't know whether this has something to do with the keyboard problem).

I tried Sun Secure Global Desktop with the java5-packages and with the java6-packages, but it didn't work.

[Michi26 (michi26)]

I changed nothing with my system, I just installed the security updates and now everything works. The keyboard works, the tray icon appears, so for me everything is OK.
I can't speak for misterbeebee, but for me the bug could be closed.

[Yan Li (yanli)]

I've been using a Java applet in Firefox started from webpage for some days without a problem. But today I met a similar problem, I just couldn't input anything into it. The keyboard just didn't work. Other applications include Firefox were OK. Just this Java applet broke.

I saw no tray icon. I can't remember I saw one when it worked yesterday.

I'm using sun-java6-jre (6-03-0ubuntu2) with Firefox 2.0.0.11 on Gutsy (7.10) with all latest updates installed (no pre-release updates).

I'll try if a reboot could fix this.

[Yan Li (yanli)]

After restarted Firefox for twice, that keyboard was OK in that applet. So this should be an intermittent problem. I'll comment later if I can find someway to reproduce it.

Or anybody have any comments on where to check or how to debug that applet when this problem occurs again?

[Yan Li (yanli)]

For me, this bug affects not only Java applet started from a browser, but normal Java programs too (such as Freemind). Occasionally, some Java programs have no responses to keyboard. I'll have to restart the affected Java program to fix it, once or twice.

BTW, I've SCIM running. But when the bug occurred, I was mostly in plain English/Keyboard.

[Michi26 (michi26)]

I just found the following:

http://forum.java.sun.com/thread.jspa?threadID=5104493

At the moment I can't try it but maybe this is the solution?

[Yan Li (yanli)]

Thanks Michi26, I'll try it. But my problem is sporadic, not likely
due to this. I suspect SCIM. But for daily work I just can't remove
SCIM to test. :(

[Daniel T Chen (crimsun)]

Is this symptom still reproducible in 8.10 beta?

[Pedro Villavicencio (pedro)]

We are closing this bug report because it lacks the information we need to investigate the problem, as described in the previous comments. Please reopen it if you can give us the missing information, and don't hesitate to submit bug reports in the future. To reopen the bug report you can click on the current status, under the Status column, and change the Status back to New. Thanks again!.

[Ralph Janke (txwikinger)]

We'd like to figure out what's causing this bug for you, but we haven't heard back from you in a while. Is this problem still reproducible in jaunty or karmic? Thanks!

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

[Expired for sun-java5 (Ubuntu) because there has been no activity for 60 days.]

[useResa (rdrijsen)]

I am running Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64 bit version and have been experiencing the same issue.
It seems that I can never input keyboard strokes and/or mouse clicks in Unity. In cinnamon (which I have installed as an additional DE) it sometimes is possible but also in this environment it does fail every now and then.

$ cat /etc/lsb-release
DISTRIB_ID=Ubuntu
DISTRIB_RELEASE=12.04
DISTRIB_CODENAME=precise
DISTRIB_DESCRIPTION="Ubuntu 12.04.1 LTS"

$ aptitude show firefox
Package: firefox
State: installed
Automatically installed: no
Version: 15.0+build1-0ubuntu0.12.04.1

I have installed oracle sun java from the wepupd8 ppa (as described here: http://www.webupd8.org/2012/01/install-oracle-java-jdk-7-in-ubuntu-via.html) and my java version is:
$ java -version
java version "1.7.0_07"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_07-b10)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.3-b01, mixed mode)

If more information is required, please let me know.

[Ruud van Eeghem (r-van-eeghem)]

I can confirm this issue. I'm also running ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit. I am experiencing the same issue with the Oracle Secure Desktop mentioned. Using Firefox (version 27) and the IcedTea plugin for running applets.

When logging in to the secure deskopt, the external desktop is displayed however the mouse/keyboard focus is never moved to the desktop window. At first I had the problem that the window displaying the external desktop was shown outside the actual dimensions of the active workspace. My guess was that mouse/keyboard issue was related to the incorrect display. I checked the Oracle support site for this. Oracle recommended adding the legacy support for full screen display using the compiz configuration manager. This solved the display issue by swapping the window with the remote desktop to full screen.

However the mouse/keyboard is still not responding. Clicking and swithing back/forward between other applications does not resolve the issue.