If I add your gl_Canvas to the Frame directly and kick the GlJPanel, it works.
I didn't know it's cool to add a JPanel to an AWT Canvas anyway. :-)
Maybe the mixing of OpenGL AWT and Swing components ist the problem here (not the general mixing of AWT and Swing, but with OpenGL ) ?
I once encountered problems when I tried to use an AWT GlCanvas inside a Swing JFrame... however adding Swing components next to my GlCanvas inside an AWT Frame works fine.
http://jogl.dev.java.net/unbranded-source/browse/*checkout*/jogl/doc/userguide/index.html?rev=1.2
"(..) Jogl provides two basic widgets into which OpenGL rendering can be performed. The GLCanvas is a heavyweight AWT widget which supports hardware acceleration and which is intended to be the primary widget used by applications. The GLJPanel is a fully Swing-compatible lightweight widget which currently does not support hardware acceleration but which is intended to provide 100% correct Swing integration in the rare circumstances where a GLCanvas can not be used. See this article on The Swing Connection for more information about mixing lightweight and heavyweight widgets. (..)"
If you can live with "just" the GlCanvas I'd stick with this. Works great here (inside an AWT Frame).