problems with PLASTIC HUB

[Igor Chilingarian]

Hello all,

Today I have faced a very annoying problem with the PLASTIC HUB. It doesn't 
work with the recent Java WebStart from Sun on Linux:

% java -version
java version "1.6.0"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0-b105)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.6.0-b105, mixed mode)

% javaws
Java(TM) Web Start 1.6.0
Usage:  javaws [run-options] <jnlp-file>
         javaws [control-options]

I'm trying to start it using Java WebStart for this URL:
http://software.astrogrid.org/jnlp/plastic-hub/plastic-hub.jnlp

At first, it keeps silence for some time, trying to download 3.5 Megabytes of 
something (probably .jar) from 143.210.36.14:80 (even though it is supposed to 
be cached by JavaWS, and during the first attempt it showed me the 
progress bar), after that I see the splash screen, then the main window 
appears for a second, and after that it dies silently, leaving ~/.plastic in 
my homedir.

If I do not remove ~/.plastic and try again, it behaves correctly, producing 
an error-message saying that I have to remove this file.

At the same time, if I download 
"http://software.astrogrid.org/jnlp/plastic-hub/plastic-hub-2007.1.1-app.jar" 
and start it as "java -jar plastic-hub-2007.1.1-app.jar", everything works 
correctly - so my guess it is a sort of java security problem. However since 
"javaws" doesn't print any debug messages, it is impossible to say what it is 
exactly.

Any suggestions?

With best regards,
 						Igor