FULL PRODUCT VERSION :
java full version "1.6.0_03-b05"

ADDITIONAL OS VERSION INFORMATION :
Linux (Ubuntu Gutsy beta) on x86, kernel 2.6.22-14-generic

EXTRA RELEVANT SYSTEM CONFIGURATION :
 customer (R) Pentium(R) D CPU 3.40GHz, 2GB RAM, GeForce 7600GT 256MB RAM.

A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
The Java plugin fails working with Firefox (2.0.0.6).
After installing the plugin and visiting a page with a java applet, there's no sign of Java activity, instead a file "plugin_stack.trace" appears in the home directory with the following content:
[code]
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class com.sun.deploy.config.Config
	at sun.plugin.AppletViewer.initEnvironment(Unknown Source)
	at sun.plugin.navig.motif.Plugin.doit(Unknown Source)
	at sun.plugin.navig.motif.Plugin.start(Unknown Source)
[/code]

STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
1. Install the plugin: open a terminal window and go to the Firefox plugin directory, then type "ln -s path_to_the_java_plugin.so".
2. Restart Firefox and go to some site with an applet.
3. The plugin doesn't work,  instead there's appears a new file in user's home dir called "plugin_stack.trace".


REPRODUCIBILITY :
This bug can be reproduced always.

CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
Don't use java 6 update 3.

Release Regression From : 6u2
The above release value was the last known release where this 
bug was not reproducible. Since then there has been a regression.
Posted Date : 2007-10-09 22:39:52.0

N/A

Ubuntu isn't in our Java 6 support matrix.
JRE 6u3, 6u4, and 6u5 all work fine with the supported Linux platforms.
Even though Ubuntu isn't supported, I'd like to see if the reported issue is indeed a problem and if there's a simple solution for it. Unfortunately, I do not have access to any Ubuntu linux box.
Does anyone have a Ubuntu version of Linux where I can access to duplicate this bug?

Will keep this bug opened for another 2 weeks.
Posted Date : 2007-11-27 17:47:51.0

I see the exact same problem. But it also fails on JRE 6 update 2.

I see the same problem on JRE 6 update 2 and JRE 6 with no updates. - tjbrownnh2 

I see the problem on Red Hat Linux 5.0 with JRE 6. - 
tjbrownnh2