Upgrade RHEL from 7.3 to 7.4: ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException in sun.font.CompositeStrike.getStrikeForSlot

Question

We just upgraded a server from RHEL v7.3 to v7.4.

This simple program works in RHEL v7.3 and fails in v7.4

public class TestJava {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Font font = new Font("SansSerif", Font.PLAIN, 12);
    FontRenderContext frc = new FontRenderContext(null, false, false);
    TextLayout layout = new TextLayout("\ude00", font, frc);
    layout.getCaretShapes(0);
    System.out.println(layout);
  }
}

The exception in RHEL 7.4 is :

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 0
    at sun.font.CompositeStrike.getStrikeForSlot(CompositeStrike.java:75)
    at sun.font.CompositeStrike.getFontMetrics(CompositeStrike.java:93)
    at sun.font.Font2D.getFontMetrics(Font2D.java:415)
    at java.awt.Font.defaultLineMetrics(Font.java:2176)
    at java.awt.Font.getLineMetrics(Font.java:2283)
    at java.awt.font.TextLayout.fastInit(TextLayout.java:598)
    at java.awt.font.TextLayout.<init>(TextLayout.java:393)

Te result on RHEL v7.3 is:

sun.font.StandardTextSource@7ba4f24f[start:0, len:1, cstart:0, clen:1, chars:"de00", level:0, flags:0, font:java.awt.Font[family=SansSerif,name=SansSerif,style=plain,size=12], frc:java.awt.font.FontRenderContext@c14b833b, cm:sun.font.CoreMetrics@412ae196]

The update of RHEL v7.4 includes an update of openjdk from 1.8.0.131 to 1.8.0.141 but this does not seems to be related to the version of openjdk, as the problem is the same with the IBM JDK coming with WebSphere v9.0 (v1.8.0 SR4 FP6). With the same version of the IBM JDK on a RHEL v7.3 and RHEL v7.4 server, the program works in RH 7.3 and fails in RH 7.4 the same way as with openjdk

Any idea what's going on?

Bromley

Answer 1

We finally found it !
RHEL v7.4 (upgraded from v7.3 or fresh install) comes with package stix-fonts.
When this package is installed, the default font changed from Utopiato STIX So, java now default fonts are mapped to STIX, including thesans-seriffont family
For whatever reason, the STIX fonts does not seem to play well with java (openjdk+ IBM JDK) and cause exceptions and bad calculated artefacts positionning when using java.awt, which is the case with JasperReports
We ended creating a file name /etc/fonts/local.conf with this in order to force back Utopia as the default font, used by java..

<?xml version='1.0'?>
<!DOCTYPE fontconfig SYSTEM 'fonts.dtd'>
<fontconfig>
  <alias>
    <family>serif</family>
    <prefer><family>Utopia</family></prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>sans-serif</family>
    <prefer><family>Utopia</family></prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>monospace</family>
    <prefer><family>Utopia</family></prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>dialog</family>
    <prefer><family>Utopia</family></prefer>
  </alias>
  <alias>
    <family>dialoginput</family>
    <prefer><family>Utopia</family></prefer>
  </alias>
</fontconfig>

[EDITED 2018-10-22]
It seems the bug is fixed in JDK 1.8.192: https://bugs.java.com/view_bug.do?bug_id=JDK-8188030

[EDITED 2019-06-28]
There is now a fix to work around the problem included in IBM JDK v8.05.37 http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg1IJ16655

Bromley

Answer 2

Environment RHEL 7.4

We are not able to use font sans serif after the upgrade with OpenJDK or IBM JDK.

New Exception using fonts libraries in openjdk 1.8.0.141-2 . Resolution The issue is fixed in java-1.8.0-openjdk-1.8.0.151-1.b12.el7_4.x86_64 . RHSA-2017:2998 - Security Advisory Workaround

It is observed that in some scenarios installing dejavu-serif-fonts fixes the problem.

yum install dejavu-serif-fonts

Townsfolk

Answer 3

if you only install any other font like "dejavu-serif-fonts" the problem will be solved. Or you do the workaroundwith the "local.conf" file. RedHat has listet the problem as a bug in 7.4 and is searching for a real solution and dependencies: have a look here: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1479563

Hibbitts

Answer 4

If someone is having problems running an application on a clean Linux server instance, run the command fc-list and verify if it has multiple fonts and from different folders, in my case, I had some extra fonts in the path /usr/share/X11/fonts/Type1/, I removed everything on the folder, and the problem was solved.

Shaped