Ctrl+A key combination is used for selecting all the text. On Solaris and Linux it is not possible to select the text inside a java.awt.TextArea using Ctrl+A combination

On Windows, platform, it works as expected.

Try with the testcase attached.
The testcase is an applet having two TextAreas. The fist TextArea is having some text in it. On load of the applet, the cursor will be placed in the first TextArea, try pressing Ctrl+A. If the text inside the TextArea is not selected, the scenario is reproduced.