waitForCardPresent() within thread freezes applet under Ubuntu

[emilie.c@pro-active.fr]

Hello,

I am currently having some issues with the waitForCardPresent() function in an applet.

I am developping an applet that manages PC/SC communications.
In my applet I need to check card Status.
To do I use a Thread , I have created a CardStatus class that manages the work of the thread (this class extends Thread).

Here is how I start my thread :

cs = new CardStatus();
cardStatusThread = new Thread(cs);
cardStatusThread.start();

I use EventListeners to notify my applet once waitForCardPresent() has finished.

The run() of my thread consists of (I have simplified the code) :

while(true)
{
if(Reader != null)
{

try {
if(!Reader.isCardPresent()) // the reader is set by the applet using a SetReader() function defined in CardStatus class
{
Reader.waitForCardPresent(0);
this.NotifyPresentListeners(); // this function notifies the applet that a card has been found
}

} catch (CardException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}

This applet is signed.
I successfully manage to run this applet using windows, but I can't when using Ubuntu : the applet freezes until I put a card in the reader.

I have tried to replace the Reader.waitForCardPresent(0); instruction with Thread.sleep(50000); to check if there was a mistake from the way I was using my thread, in that case my applet doesn't freeze under Ubuntu ; so I am guessing that it is the waitForCardPresent function that causes the trouble.

I know that it could not be a security issue, because I have created an un signed applet that uses WaitForCardPresent (not within a thread, within the main code of the applet, just to test this) and I had no problem with it.