If you're trying to take multi-line input from a textarea input control, the problem isn't really in JSF. JSF renders the HTML TEXTAREA input tag, and it's the limitations on HTML that are the problem.
Unfortunately, there's no easy way around that. HTML wasn't designed for that sort of input. There are some JavaScript solutions, but the only way otherwise that you can make a web page behave in ways that HTML doesn't support is to use an
applet, ActiveX or other type of plugin. Plugin solutions are a pain, since they all have limitations. For example, I run a 64-bit machine, and there is no applet or Flash support for 64-bit OS's. Only by downgrading the browser to 32-bit mode (which I refuse to do). And ActiveX will only run on my system when pigs fly on pretty pink wings.
The secret of how to be miserable is to constantly expect things are going to happen the way that they are "supposed" to happen.
You can have faith, which carries the understanding that you may be disappointed. Then there's being a willfully-blind idiot, which virtually guarantees it.