[NETBEANS-3810] Netbeans 11.3 does not report clearly certificate problems downloading javafx and nb-javac

• Type: Bug
• Status: Open
• Priority: Minor
• Resolution: Unresolved
• Affects Version/s: 11.3
• Fix Version/s: 11.3
• Component/s: platform - Autoupdate
• Labels: documentation newbie

Environment

Windows 2016 server, Intel Xeon, 48G RAM.
Network includes a proxy server with deep packet inspection and certificate rewriting.

• Flags: Important
• Assignee: Michele Costabile
• Reporter: Michele Costabile
• Created: 07/Feb/20 08:51
• Updated: 26/May/20 11:10

Description

NetBeans cannot get past installation of JavaFX and nb-javac on my installation behind a company firewall. This problem was also in 11.2, but it did not stop the IDE from working. It just kept on quietly asking for nb-javac installation.

11.3, on the other hand does not seem to get past this problem. It keeps on asking for installation of javafx and nb-javac and "Loading projects" never comes to an end.

I tested my proxy setting in options and I have a green light with system settings and also with manual settings.
In any case I have never been able to install nb-javac and could not find instructions on how to install manually the plugin.

Note that my proxy has deep packet inspection and can create problems with certificate verification on SSL.

 

EDIT: the request for installation is not an infinite loop. It appears to be once for every open project. Hitting cancel more times, the progress bar in the status bar eventually gets to 100%, but all the projects are reported broken.

 

EDIT: as you can see from the comments below, it was really a problem with certificates. When you are behind a proxy with deep inspection, certificates are manipulated in such a way that you have to trust your company root certificate to avoid failure in trust chains.

This becomes a NetBeans installation problem because:

• Differently from other IDEs, NetBeans delegates everything to JDK, so it requires that the trust problem is solved in the JDK, not in the IDE preferences. The user should be able to find instructionsto resolve the problem
• In 11.2 the IDE did not enter a loop waiting for nb'javac installation to validate projects. It just gave up, causing less problems
• "Test connection" in proxy settings did not report certificate problems. A full https connection should be tested
• The dialog box of nb-javac installation does not report certificate problems, it rather dies without warning and the installation is stuck with a progress bar at 100% and no notification other than "cannot resolve external references ..." This hides the problem

 

 

Issue Links

• is related to: NETBEANS-4328 Installation of nb-javac and JavaFX no longer optional in some cases