I removed the xercesImpl.jar from JBoss' lib/endorsed directory in order to get the Spring applicationContext.xml file to parse and now when it's loading the JSF stuff, I get this error:
09:05:54,958 ERROR [[/nsWeb]] Exception sending context initialized event to listener instance of class org.jboss.web.jsf.integration.config.JBossJSFConfigureListener
java.lang.ClassCastException: org.gjt.xpp.jaxp11.SAXParserFactoryImpl cannot be cast to javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory at javax.xml.parsers.SAXParserFactory.newInstance(SAXParserFactory.java:128)
at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener$WebXmlProcessor.getConfiguredFactory(ConfigureListener.java:698)
at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener$WebXmlProcessor.scanForFacesServlet(ConfigureListener.java:670)
at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener$WebXmlProcessor.<init>(ConfigureListener.java:644)
at com.sun.faces.config.ConfigureListener.contextInitialized(ConfigureListener.java:156)
at org.jboss.web.jsf.integration.config.JBossJSFConfigureListener.contextInitialized(JBossJSFConfigureListener.java:75)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3910)
at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4393)
at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.deployers.TomcatDeployment.performDeployInternal(TomcatDeployment.java:312)
at org.jboss.web.tomcat.service.deployers.TomcatDeployment.performDeploy(TomcatDeployment.java:144)
at org.jboss.web.deployers.AbstractWarDeployment.start(AbstractWarDeployment.java:461)
at org.jboss.web.deployers.WebModule.startModule(WebModule.java:118)
at org.jboss.web.deployers.WebModule.start(WebModule.java:97)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at org.jboss.mx.interceptor.ReflectedDispatcher.invoke(ReflectedDispatcher.java:157)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.dispatch(Invocation.java:96)
at org.jboss.mx.server.Invocation.invoke(Invocation.java:88)
at org.jboss.mx.server.AbstractMBeanInvoker.invoke(AbstractMBeanInvoker.java:264)
at org.jboss.mx.server.MBeanServerImpl.invoke(MBeanServerImpl.java:668)
at org.jboss.system.microcontainer.ServiceProxy.invoke(ServiceProxy.java:206)
at $Proxy36.start(Unknown Source)
at org.jboss.system.microcontainer.StartStopLifecycleAction.installAction(StartStopLifecycleAction.java:42)
at org.jboss.system.microcontainer.StartStopLifecycleAction.installAction(StartStopLifecycleAction.java:37)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.action.SimpleControllerContextAction.simpleInstallAction(SimpleControllerContextAction.java:62)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.action.AccessControllerContextAction.install(AccessControllerContextAction.java:71)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractControllerContextActions.install(AbstractControllerContextActions.java:51)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractControllerContext.install(AbstractControllerContext.java:348)
at org.jboss.system.microcontainer.ServiceControllerContext.install(ServiceControllerContext.java:286)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.install(AbstractController.java:1598)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.incrementState(AbstractController.java:934)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.resolveContexts(AbstractController.java:1062)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.resolveContexts(AbstractController.java:984)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.change(AbstractController.java:822)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.change(AbstractController.java:553)
at org.jboss.system.ServiceController.doChange(ServiceController.java:688)
at org.jboss.system.ServiceController.start(ServiceController.java:460)
at org.jboss.system.deployers.ServiceDeployer.start(ServiceDeployer.java:163)
at org.jboss.system.deployers.ServiceDeployer.deploy(ServiceDeployer.java:99)
at org.jboss.system.deployers.ServiceDeployer.deploy(ServiceDeployer.java:46)
at org.jboss.deployers.spi.deployer.helpers.AbstractSimpleRealDeployer.internalDeploy(AbstractSimpleRealDeployer.java:62)
at org.jboss.deployers.spi.deployer.helpers.AbstractRealDeployer.deploy(AbstractRealDeployer.java:50)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployerWrapper.deploy(DeployerWrapper.java:171)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployersImpl.doDeploy(DeployersImpl.java:1439)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployersImpl.doInstallParentFirst(DeployersImpl.java:1157)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployersImpl.doInstallParentFirst(DeployersImpl.java:1178)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployersImpl.install(DeployersImpl.java:1098)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractControllerContext.install(AbstractControllerContext.java:348)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.install(AbstractController.java:1598)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.incrementState(AbstractController.java:934)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.resolveContexts(AbstractController.java:1062)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.resolveContexts(AbstractController.java:984)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.change(AbstractController.java:822)
at org.jboss.dependency.plugins.AbstractController.change(AbstractController.java:553)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.deployers.DeployersImpl.process(DeployersImpl.java:781)
at org.jboss.deployers.plugins.main.MainDeployerImpl.process(MainDeployerImpl.java:698)
at org.jboss.system.server.profileservice.ProfileServiceBootstrap.loadProfile(ProfileServiceBootstrap.java:304)
at org.jboss.system.server.profileservice.ProfileServiceBootstrap.start(ProfileServiceBootstrap.java:205)
at org.jboss.bootstrap.AbstractServerImpl.start(AbstractServerImpl.java:405)
at org.jboss.Main.boot(Main.java:209)
at org.jboss.Main$1.run(Main.java:547)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:619)
It looks like you ran into a class scoping issue (classes outside the WAR do not have access to classes inside the WAR). The better solution is to remove the xerces.jar file form you web app and leave the one in lib/endorsed there.
It's nice to know somebody is there. I've removed the xerces, xalan or stax jars from my war and used the ones in lib/endorsed and it still happens. I deleted all the jars and am adding them back in one at a time until I find the one that triggers this.
Check the post you referred to. He and I have both done everything the docs say to try and nothing has worked. Maybe JBoss 5's new classloader is configurable, but the configurations they've said to use get other errors. And their tool kickstarts don't work either.