problem with css

Hi i have following jsp code

Login.jsp

<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/html" prefix="h" %>
<%@ taglib uri="http://java.sun.com/jsf/core" prefix="f" %>
<f:loadBundle basename="com.equifax.cdc.util.messages" var="msg"/>
 
<html>
 <head>
    <title>Login.jsp</title>
    <link href="../css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>
 </head>
 <body>
     <f:view>
      <h:form id="Login">
       <h2>
         <h:outputText value="#{msg.cdc_banner}"/>
       </h2>
 
       <p>
         <h:messages style="color: blue"/>
       </p>
 
       <p>         
         <h:outputText value="#{msg.userName}"/> : 
         <h:inputText value="#{loginBean.userName}" required="true">
         <v:commonsValidator type="required" arg="#{text['person.firstName']}"/>
         </h:inputText>
         <br>         
         <h:outputText value="#{msg.password}"/> : 
<h:inputSecret redisplay="false" value="#{loginBean.passWord}" />
 
 
         <br>
         <br>
         <br>
         
         <h:commandButton value="#{msg.login_button}" action="#{loginBean.validateUser}" styleClass="button_display" />
       </p>
       
      </h:form>
    </f:view>
 </body>
</html>

css code

when the Login.jsp loads for the first time, the back ground color is not changed as in style sheet. But if i hit submit the color changes.....

can some one pls tell what mistake i am doing......I am making use of Tomcat 5.x

I don't know what "hitting submit" means in the context of your application. But it is probably connecting to a URL for which the relative pathactually points to your CSS file, and your original URL does not do that.

<link href="../css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>

try this instead:-

<link href="<%=request.getContextPath()%>/css/styles.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"/>