This appears to be a problem with OpenJDK being incompatible with Java SE 6. Some searching revealed there are some problems:
"Inclusion in Linux distributions
As of May 2008, the Fedora 9[15][16] and Ubuntu 8.04[17] distributions were released with OpenJDK, based completely on free and open source code[18].
OpenJDK did not pass all of the compatibility tests in the Java SE 6 JCK at the time, because of the remaining encumbrances. They had however been reduced to less than 1% of the source code[19] and were only necessary to build OpenJDK[20], not running it. Moreover, OpenJDK can run complex applications such as NetBeans, Eclipse, GlassFish, or JBoss.
In June 2008, it was announced that IcedTea6 (as the packaged version of OpenJDK on Fedora 9) has passed the Technology Compatibility Kit tests and can claim to be a fully compatible Java 6 implementation[21].
On July 12, 2008, Debian accepted OpenJDK-6 in unstable[22][23], and it is now in stable[24].
This appears to be a problem with OpenJDK being incompatible with Java SE 6. Some searching revealed there are some problems:
"Inclusion in Linux distributions
As of May 2008, the Fedora 9[15][16] and Ubuntu 8.04[17] distributions were released with OpenJDK, based completely on free and open source code[18].
OpenJDK did not pass all of the compatibility tests in the Java SE 6 JCK at the time, because of the remaining encumbrances. They had however been reduced to less than 1% of the source code[19] and were only necessary to build OpenJDK[20], not running it. Moreover, OpenJDK can run complex applications such as NetBeans, Eclipse, GlassFish, or JBoss.
In June 2008, it was announced that IcedTea6 (as the packaged version of OpenJDK on Fedora 9) has passed the Technology Compatibility Kit tests and can claim to be a fully compatible Java 6 implementation[21].
On July 12, 2008, Debian accepted OpenJDK-6 in unstable[22][23], and it is now in stable[24].
Since August 2008, OpenJDK 7 is runnable on Mac OS X and other BSD distributions[25]." - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenJDK#Inclusion_in_Linux_distributions
Error came from user with the following system:
I'm using Ubuntu 8.04 aka Hardy Heron and yes, I got java from the official repositories.
CODE
roccivic@roccivic-pc:~$ /usr/lib/jvm/java-6-openjdk/bin/java -version
java version "1.6.0_0"
OpenJDK Runtime Environment (build 1.6.0_0-b11)
OpenJDK Client VM (build 1.6.0_0-b11, mixed mode, sharing)
roccivic@roccivic-pc:~$ uname -a
Linux roccivic-pc 2.6.24-23-generic #1 SMP Mon Jan 26 00:13:11 UTC 2009 i686 GNU/Linux