"Vs. Computer" java applet crashes on Ubuntu

Using both Chrome and Firefox on Ubuntu 10.04, I've been experiencing a crash immediately after visiting the "Vs. Computer" page. Looks like a null pointer issue. The crash generates the following java debugging information:

java version "1.6.0_27"

OpenJDK Runtime Environment (IcedTea6 1.12.6) (6b27-1.12.6-1ubuntu0.10.04.2)

OpenJDK Server VM (build 20.0-b12, mixed mode)

java.lang.NullPointerException

at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.appContextGet(SwingUtilities.java:1858)

at javax.swing.SwingUtilities.getSharedOwnerFrame(SwingUtilities.java:1828)

at javax.swing.JWindow.<init>(JWindow.java:185)

at javax.swing.JWindow.<init>(JWindow.java:137)

at net.sourceforge.jnlp.runtime.JNLPSecurityManager.<init>(JNLPSecurityManager.java:121)

at net.sourceforge.jnlp.runtime.JNLPRuntime.initialize(JNLPRuntime.java:238)

at sun.applet.PluginAppletSecurityContext.<init>(PluginAppletSecurityContext.java:245)

at sun.applet.PluginMain.main(PluginMain.java:109)

Something very bad happened. I don't know what to do, so I am going to exit :(

I can't help you with your crashing issue, other than suggesting you remove java because it is notorious security holes.  If you wish to play against a computer opponent install gnuchess or pychess along with the stockfish engine.

I selectively enable java, and have stockfish. This post was meant to be a bug report.

@RyanSpeller- Thanks for the report. Can you please let me know what version of Chrome and Firefox you're using? Did this just recently become an issue?

Hi Jaclyn, it's been an issue for as long as I can remember.

Chrome: Version 25.0.1364.160 Ubuntu 10.04 (25.0.1364.160-0ubuntu0.10.04.1)

Firefox: Mozilla Firefox 20.0 for Ubuntu

Are you able to update to Java 7?

Just in case someone is looking fr this like I was: The problem seems realted to OpenJDK. By using the Oracle Java 7 (I got it from the webup8 PPA) it works for me (FF 26.0, Ubuntu 13.10).

Firefox is now blocking the Java 7 update by default for new installs and upgrades to version 26 because of it's inherent security problems.

Java deveoplers are of course furious but on the plus side it will force them to write beter code making all users safer online and that IMHO is a good thing.