I guess Java has a problem with /etc/localtime in Ubuntu.

Unless the /etc/localtime file is a symlink, Java doesn`t want to read it. Check out this bug report. 

If you are one of those who use Sametime under Linux with Meanwhile protocol, and since your Lotus Notes guys upgraded to the 7.X version of Lotus Notes, you probably are having hard time using the meanwhile protocol, because it wouldn`t show user status correctly. (Check out the discussion on pidgin ticket #58)

There is a fix for pidgin under Windows. (and for Adium for Mac OS X) But for the longest time there was no fix for Linux users because the Meanwhile protocol development stopped (or extremely slowed down) since 2006.

Fortunately, the developer of meanwhile, taliesein, decided to patch the protocol library to fix this issue. (But an official version is not released yet…) The patch is in the 1.1.0 branch of the CVS. Here is what I did to patch my meanwhile protocol until an official version is released.

• Download the 1.0.2 version of libmeanwhile.
• Also download the new versions of the files: cipher.c, mw_cipher.h,
  mw_st_list.h, common.c, mw_common.h, srvc_conf.c from the 1.1.0 CVS branch:
• Replace the same files under src/
• Then: ./configure; make
• The library ends up in the directory src/.libs/ all you have to do is now
  to copy that library to the original location. (/usr/lib under ubuntu)
  (libmeanwhile.so.1.0.2)

Quick and dirty, not the most elegant solution, but until an “official” version is out, that`s the best I can do 😉

Happy Sametime 😛