JSF - RichFaces - IE9 re render failure - jsf

Question

I am running a web application using RichFaces 4.1.0, mojarra 2.0.2 and apache tomcat 6.0.32.
My app runs well in all the different browsers except IE9.
It stops working in IE 9 and does not generate any javascript error or tomcat logs.
It fails whenever an a4j re-render operation happens.
I cannot use due to design constraints the meta tag to set the IE9 in compatiblity mode.
Below is my code and web.xml:
<h:body>
<h:form>
<rich:tabPanel switchType="client">
<rich:tab header="Overview">
<span>Total Number of Applications</span>
</rich:tab>
<rich:tab header="Options" onheaderclick="refreshOptions();" >
<h:outputText value="Logging Level:" />
<rich:select id="optionsLogLevel"
value="#{optionsBean.logLevel}"
required="true"
requiredMessage="Logging Level is required">
<f:selectItems value="#{optionsBean.logLevelsList}" />
</rich:select>
</rich:tab>
</rich:tabPanel>
<a4j:jsFunction name="refreshOptions"
action="#{optionsBean.refreshOptions}"
render="optionsLogLevel" execute="#this" />
</h:form>
web.xml
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<web-app version="2.5" xmlns="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee" xmlns:web="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xsi:schemaLocation="http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee http://java.sun.com/xml/ns/javaee/web-app_2_5.xsd">
<servlet>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>javax.faces.webapp.FacesServlet</servlet-class>
</servlet>
<servlet-mapping>
<servlet-name>Faces Servlet</servlet-name>
<url-pattern>*.jsf</url-pattern>
</servlet-mapping>
<context-param>
<param-name>javax.faces.PROJECT_STAGE</param-name>
<param-value>Production</param-value>
</context-param>
<context-param>
<param-name>com.sun.faces.enableEarlyMissingResourceLibraryDetection</param-name>
<param-value>true</param-value>
</context-param>
<welcome-file-list>
<welcome-file>index.jsp</welcome-file>
</welcome-file-list>
<listener>
<listener-class>com.mitel.bpi.webadmin.model.BPIWebAdminContextListener</listener-class>
</listener>

Answer 1

You are likely hitting JAVASERVERFACES-2063, which breaks ajax communications in IE9 due to mis-implemented browser detection in jsf.js.
Upgrading to Mojarra >= 2.1.7 will likely fix your problems. Upgrade RichFaces while you are at it, 4.1.0.Final is quite long in the tooth now.