Compile and run the attached code using a promoted JDK8 build starting from b89. It will create a stage with a single SwingNode.
Now, running it on Ubuntu 12.* or 13.04 with Intel or ATI graphics card, you would get UnsupportedOperationException from prism (in sw mode). No painting.

The program paints OK with Ubuntu 12.04 (as it happens, i586) with Nvidia and also on OEL 6.4 uek x64 with ATI card and a recent ATI Catalist driver (13.1).

Here's the raw log:
SHOW
java.lang.UnsupportedOperationException: update5:unimp
at com.sun.prism.sw.SWArgbPreTexture.update(SWArgbPreTexture.java:116)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGExternalNode.renderContent(NGExternalNode.java:103)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGNode.doRender(NGNode.java:412)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGNode.doRender(NGNode.java:69)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.BaseNode.render(BaseNode.java:1277)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGGroup.renderChildren(NGGroup.java:237)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGGroup.renderContent(NGGroup.java:203)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGRegion.renderContent(NGRegion.java:1254)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGNode.doRender(NGNode.java:412)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.prism.NGNode.doRender(NGNode.java:69)
at com.sun.javafx.sg.BaseNode.render(BaseNode.java:1277)
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.ViewPainter.doPaint(ViewPainter.java:117)
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.AbstractPainter.paintImpl(AbstractPainter.java:212)
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.PresentingPainter.run(PresentingPainter.java:95)
at java.util.concurrent.Executors$RunnableAdapter.call(Executors.java:471)
at java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.runAndReset(FutureTask.java:304)
at com.sun.prism.render.RenderJob.run(RenderJob.java:60)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.runWorker(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:1145)
at java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor$Worker.run(ThreadPoolExecutor.java:615)
at com.sun.javafx.tk.quantum.QuantumRenderer$PipelineRunnable.run(QuantumRenderer.java:129)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:724)