How to debug in Java with this stack trace which makes no mention of my own classes?

Question

This is a tough one. A customer has sent me, via a crash report, this stack trace. It has no mention of my app's classes, so I'm perplexed as to where to start looking.

My app is a commercial desktop app. Crash reports are anonymous, so I can't easily obtain more information about the crash.

EDIT: Some Googling and thread-following makes me conclude that it is a sporadic problem in Java 1.7. Looking for a solution...

How can I proceed in debugging this?

java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Comparison method violates its general contract!
        at java.util.TimSort.mergeHi(TimSort.java:868)
        at java.util.TimSort.mergeAt(TimSort.java:485)
        at java.util.TimSort.mergeCollapse(TimSort.java:410)
        at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:214)
        at java.util.TimSort.sort(TimSort.java:173)
        at java.util.Arrays.sort(Arrays.java:659)
        at java.util.Collections.sort(Collections.java:217)
        at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.enumerateAndSortCycle(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:136)
        at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.getFocusTraversalCycle(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:110)
        at javax.swing.SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.getFirstComponent(SortingFocusTraversalPolicy.java:435)
        at javax.swing.LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy.getFirstComponent(LayoutFocusTraversalPolicy.java:166)
        at javax.swing.DefaultFocusManager.getFirstComponent(DefaultFocusManager.java:120)
        at javax.swing.LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy.getFirstComponent(LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy.java:132)
        at javax.swing.LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy.getDefaultComponent(LegacyGlueFocusTraversalPolicy.java:150)
        at java.awt.FocusTraversalPolicy.getInitialComponent(FocusTraversalPolicy.java:169)
        at java.awt.DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.dispatchEvent(DefaultKeyboardFocusManager.java:380)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEventImpl(Component.java:4731)
        at java.awt.Container.dispatchEventImpl(Container.java:2287)
        at java.awt.Window.dispatchEventImpl(Window.java:2719)
        at java.awt.Component.dispatchEvent(Component.java:4687)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEventImpl(EventQueue.java:723)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.access$200(EventQueue.java:103)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:682)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$3.run(EventQueue.java:680)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:87)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:696)
        at java.awt.EventQueue$4.run(EventQueue.java:694)
        at java.security.AccessController.doPrivileged(Native Method)
        at java.security.ProtectionDomain$1.doIntersectionPrivilege(ProtectionDomain.java:76)
        at java.awt.EventQueue.dispatchEvent(EventQueue.java:693)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpOneEventForFilters(EventDispatchThread.java:242)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForFilter(EventDispatchThread.java:161)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEventsForHierarchy(EventDispatchThread.java:150)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:146)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.pumpEvents(EventDispatchThread.java:138)
        at java.awt.EventDispatchThread.run(EventDispatchThread.java:91)

Answer 1

As pointed out elsewhere, the items in the collection being sorted (which may or may not include your own classes, can't tell from the stack trace) violate the comparison contract.

During a transition from Java 6 to Java 7, the default sorting implementation changed to TimSort. One of the impacts of this is that the new sort is more strict about the comparison contract, so you (or perhaps, Swing) may have been getting away with it for a long time, but no longer.

If you can't fix the problem with the comparison contract, you can roll back to use the Java 6 style sorting by booting your application with the property

-Djava.util.Arrays.useLegacyMergeSort=true

as detailed in the Java 7 release notes, compatibility section.