Please help: RMI and Swing/AWT issue

Question

Hi guys, I've been having a lot of trouble trying to get a GUI application to work with RMI. I'd appreciate any help. Here's the story:
I wrote a Java application and its GUI using Netbeans. In a nutshell, the application is about performing searches. I am now at the point where I need exterior programs to use my application's search capabilities, thus needing RMI. Such exterior programs are to call methods currently implemented in my application.
I implemented RMI, and got the client --> server communication working. However, the GUI just breaks. It starts outputting exceptions, gets delayed, doesn't update properly, some parts of it stop working.... basically hysterical behavior.
Now take a look at this line within my server class:
Naming.rebind("SearchProgram", mySearchProgram);
If I take it out, RMI obviously does not work... but the application and its GUI work flawlessly. If I put it in, the RMI calls work, but the GUI's above symptoms occur again. Among the symptoms are null pointer exceptions which all look similar, are related to "AWT-EventQueue-0", and keep ocurring. Here's just snippet of the errors outputted:
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at javax.swing.plaf.metal.MetalScrollBarUI.getPreferredSize(MetalScrollBarUI.java:102)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getPreferredSize(JComponent.java:1615)
at javax.swing.JScrollBar.getMinimumSize(JScrollBar.java:704)
at javax.swing.ScrollPaneLayout.minimumLayoutSize(ScrollPaneLayout.java:624)
at java.awt.Container.minimumSize(Container.java:1598)
at java.awt.Container.getMinimumSize(Container.java:1583)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getMinimumSize(JComponent.java:1697)
at java.awt.BorderLayout.minimumLayoutSize(BorderLayout.java:634)
at java.awt.Container.minimumSize(Container.java:1598)
at java.awt.Container.getMinimumSize(Container.java:1583)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getMinimumSize(JComponent.java:1697)
at java.awt.BorderLayout.minimumLayoutSize(BorderLayout.java:634)
at java.awt.Container.minimumSize(Container.java:1598)
at java.awt.Container.getMinimumSize(Container.java:1583)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getMinimumSize(JComponent.java:1697)
at javax.swing.BoxLayout.checkRequests(BoxLayout.java:433)
at javax.swing.BoxLayout.layoutContainer(BoxLayout.java:375)
at java.awt.Container.layout(Container.java:1401)
at java.awt.Container.doLayout(Container.java:1390)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1473)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1480)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1480)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1480)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1480)
at java.awt.Container.validate(Container.java:1448)
at javax.swing.RepaintManager.validateInvalidComponents(RepaintManager.java:379)
at javax.swing.SystemEventQueueUtilities$ComponentWorkRequest.run(SystemEventQueueUtilities.java:113)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:209)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:461)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:163)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:157)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:149)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:110)
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.getPreferredMenuItemSize(BasicMenuItemUI.java:400)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.BasicMenuItemUI.getPreferredSize(BasicMenuItemUI.java:310)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getPreferredSize(JComponent.java:1615)
at javax.swing.BoxLayout.checkRequests(BoxLayout.java:434)
at javax.swing.BoxLayout.preferredLayoutSize(BoxLayout.java:251)
at javax.swing.plaf.basic.DefaultMenuLayout.preferredLayoutSize(DefaultMenuLayout.java:38)
at java.awt.Container.preferredSize(Container.java:1558)
at java.awt.Container.getPreferredSize(Container.java:1543)
at javax.swing.JComponent.getPreferredSize(JComponent.java:1617)
at javax.swing.JRootPane$RootLayout.layoutContainer(JRootPane.java:910)
at java.awt.Container.layout(Container.java:1401)
at java.awt.Container.doLayout(Container.java:1390)
at java.awt.Container.validateTree(Container.java:1473)
at java.awt.Container.validate(Container.java:1448)
at javax.swing.RepaintManager.validateInvalidComponents(RepaintManager.java:379)
at javax.swing.SystemEventQueueUtilities$ComponentWorkRequest.run(SystemEventQueueUtilities.java:113)
at java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.dispatch(InvocationEvent.java:209)
at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:461)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:163)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:157)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:149)
at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:110)
There are no complaints about anything within my code, it's all GUI related whenever I make a bind() or rebind() call.
Again, any help here would be great... cause this one's just beating me.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Maybe you want to change that worker thread to
not do RMI but anything else (dummy data) to see if it really is RMI, I doubt it, I think you are updating some structures that have to do with swing GUI and hence you will hang.
Just check this out.