When we start up our Java applet, a basic login dialog is presented to
the user to obtain a user name and password. When running on Solaris,
this dialog appears "postage stamp size". That is, rather than being
roughly 3 inches by 4 inches, it is more like 1 inch by 1 inch. At this
compressed size, it bears little resemblance to its true appearance.
Grabbing a corner of the window and stretching it several inches will
make the window display all of its fields, labels and buttons.

This happens consistently on Solaris. Our platforms are largely on
Solaris 2.6 at this point, but we saw the same behavior on machines
running Solaris 2.5.1. The Java Console contains the following:

   * Java Plug-in: Version 1.2.2_01 Jun-25-1999
   * Using JRE version 1.2.1

This problem has never been observed on Windows NT, and our recent
certification effort on AIX 4.3.3 with IBM's JDK 1.2.2. shows that it is
not happening there.

In terms of replicating this issue, please execute the following steps:
1) login on the console of a Solaris machine with JDK 1.2.2_05a
installed. (note: if you are not on the console, you are unlikely to
replicate the issue).
2) Configure your Java PlugIn accordingly so that you can reach our system
3) Start up the test Metaphase Applet that was used in the garbled menus
case (See Sun support case 735247)
4) When you see the Metaphase login panel, if it does not appear fully
sized, you have successfully replicated the issue. If, however, you see a
regular login panel, terminate the test run and try again.

Now, to convince yourself that it isn't our code that is the issue, try the
steps above using a JDK 1.3 PlugIn -- you should find that the mis-shaped
dialog occurs far less frequently than it did using a JDK 1.2.2_05a. We
have NOT exhaustively tested JDK 1.3 to confirm it fixes the issue, but it
does appear to be an improvement.