Comment 2 for bug 1170303

This is a known bug with IceWM and other Window Managers. The discussion about this bug can be found at http://sourceforge.net/p/icewm/bugs/892/
The problem appears when you switch from the Java 7 window to another, or switch to another desktop. Once the Java 7 window loses it's focus, it wont regain it. The provisional solution is to minimize and then restore/maximize the Java 7 window. Then you can use text fields and keyboard input as normal, until you switch windows again.
There is a patch that works and has been integrated into the main IceWM tree. You can see this bug was fixed in 1.3.8 by reading the changelog: http://icewm.cvs.sourceforge.net/viewvc/icewm/icewm-1.2/CHANGES?view=markup&pathrev=icewm-1-3-BRANCH
Unfortunately, there's no release (or stable release) of this package version I can find. I'm also a little annoyed by the bug, but I also understand that Debian package maintainers have their hands full most of the time. I would like to know how to compile my own icewm binary to replace the one shipped in deb form. If you can do that yourself, maybe you could try to do it and test if that works for you? If/When you do it, could you share your results?