Java applets do not properly work with openjdk-6

[Michael B. Trausch]

Binary package hint: icedtea-gcjwebplugin

When attempting to use a proprietary, closed-access Java applet (which incidentally works with sun-java6-plugin on x86 systems), the applet does not init, and the terminal contains a lot of output regarding not being able to find a class (“java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: netscape/javascript/JSObject”). I am attempting to create a publicly accessible test case ATM, as I have not found one yet (though I have found other strange behaviors, such as the applet at http://www.jwirc.com/chat.html failing to properly work, but I don’t think that is the same problem).

I am able to use the Sun JVM test applet just fine, as well as use many applets that I find on the Web. I did find one applet on the web that errors out on netscape/javascript/JSObject, but in a different way (which I suspect to be the same problem): http://www.galasoft.ch/myjavascript/consulting/LiveConnect102/index.html

This is using Hardy on an AMD64 machine.

As an aside, does this mean that I'll have to go back to a 32-bit setup if I want to properly execute applets from this site, or is there something that I can do to work around it, or maybe some sort of way to test later versions of upstream releases cleanly on my Ubuntu system? This is a package that I have little familiarity with in that area.