IBM RSA II adapter and Java RE (fini)

If you remember back to July, I looked into some troubles I had with the IBM RSA II adapter’s Java interface and the latest JRE updates. I just noticed, that IBM released a new firmware yesterday for the RSA. The ChangeLog states this:

Version 1.13, GFEP35A
Problem(s) Fixed:

* Suggested
o Fix for Remote Control General Exception in JRE 1.6 update 12 and above.
o Corrected a problem that DHCP renew/release may fail after a long time.
o Corrected a problem that remote control preference link disapears after creating new key buttons.
o Corrected a problem that cause event number shows only from 0 to 255 when views RSA log via telnet session.

As you can see, IBM finally decided that it isn’t a Sun problem but rather their own! Finally, after about 4 months a fix, yay!

Even if the fix is just for the x3550 for now, but that puts a light to the end of the tunnel and puts up hope, that they are gonna fix it for the other RSA adapters too!

IBM RSA II adapter and Java RE

Today, after a short break (you can call it break, I think), I sat down and looked at the IBM RSA II adapter’s remote management GUI and it’s trouble with JRE versions. Ever since the last Java updates, I was unable to access the RSA console because Java would throw an error like this:

In the end, I downloaded every version since JRE 1.5.0.11 (that is 20 different versions :!:), as wittnessed by Michael Ellerbeck that the last working version for him was JRE 1.5.0.11, and gave each one a try (since I want to report the issue to IBM, so that they gonna release a fix sometime soon).

So here’s the list of what Java JRE version works with an RSA II adapter running Firmware 1.10 (GGEP36B):

  • Java JRE 1.50 U11 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U12 ……… works¹
  • Java JRE 1.50 U13 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U14 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U15 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U16 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U17 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.50 U18 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60        ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U01 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U02 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U03 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U04 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U05 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U06 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U07 ……… works
  • Java JRE 1.60 U12 ……… not working (see above)
  • Java JRE 1.60 U13 ……… not working (see above)
  • Java JRE 1.60 U14 ……… not working (see above)

1: This version presents some small annoyances (garbled video output)

Update: IBM already knows about the problem, but says it’s presumably a Java problem since it stopped working mid-version in between U11 and U12.