Headless problems

Question

Hello, guys!
I'm very tired of headless mode...
I have to create image from JComponent (a big chart inside JPanel) at the server side.
I've started with simple test progrmam:
===========================
public static void makeTestImage() throws Exception {
System.out.println("Headless? " + GraphicsEnvironment.isHeadless());
JPanel panel = new JPanel();
panel.addNotify(); // Since we have no pack
panel.setOpaque(true);
panel.setPreferredSize(new Dimension(300,300));
panel.add(new JButton("Test"));
BufferedImage image = new BufferedImage(300,300,BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB);
Graphics g = image.createGraphics();
panel.print(g);
ImageIO.write(image, "png", new File("test.png"));
=============================
I'm running it with : -Djava.awt.headless=true
Here is output, "Headless? true"
But new image is just black panel 300x300
I've tried open exist image and printString there: no problem. But i can not
export JComponent into image...
Surprisely, when i've add new method:
============================
public static void paintMe(JComponent comp, Graphics g) {
int count = comp.getComponentCount();
comp.paint(g);
for(int i=0;i<count;i++) {
if( comp.getComponent(i) instanceof JComponent) {
paintMe((JComponent)comp.getComponent(i),g);
else {
comp.getComponent(i).paint(g);
============================
and insteam of panel.paint(g), calling paintMe(panel,g), sometimes it works!!!
But not always. And it worked only for 1 panel. If I add new JPanel with some components inside panel,
I've got HadlessException. It could be fix with set doubleBuffer(false) for new JPanel, but as result: wrong alignment (one component under second...) And it doesn't work always!
I'me so tired with this task, but it is impossible to ask admin for instaling and running X-server at the UNIX box...
Could anybody say me, how i can fix my problem ? Or headless is real Head Less for Java 1.4 and i have to use X-emulator or pja lib ?
Tested platform:
WindowsNT
java version "1.4.2_03"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.2_03-b02)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.2_03-b02, mixed mode)
Solaris
java version "1.4.1_01"
Java(TM) 2 Runtime Environment, Standard Edition (build 1.4.1_01-b01)
Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (build 1.4.1_01-b01, mixed mode)

Answer 1

I've used headless graphics too; 1.4 should be ok with them
Though what I haven't done is to use JComponents in headless. I've just created a BufferedImage and drawn to that. Are you sure you need to draw GUI components?
<guessing mode on>GUIs tend to run in their own threads. The GUI thread gets a repaint event, at which point it redraws. The random behaviour could be from that: sometimes the GUI thread manages to run and repaint, sometimes not. Maybe put a bit of Thread.sleep() in there -- though this would not be an industrial strength solution, as it very much creates a race condition. But if you need to create a few one-off "screen shots" of a program for a manual or something you might get away with it.