ExceptionInInitializerError(Throwable cause) sets the detail message to null. It'd be helpful to include a detail message rather than null as in Throwable(Throwable cause) that constructs a new throwable with a default message cause==null ? null : cause.toString(). This would help troubleshooting of writing new bootstrap methods where VM currently asserts non-null linkage error message [1] where there are other solutions such as constructing the message in the VM or removing the assert. This patch proposes to change ExceptionInInitializerError(Throwable cause) to default the detail message to cause.toString() if cause is not null. It's an incompatibility change; for example existing code that expects a null message will now see a detail message. But the compatibility risk should be low as EIIE should be fatal. This also proposes to add new LinkageError(Throwable cause) constructor to retrofit the exception chaining mechanism and that allows to clean up the current ExceptionInInitializerError implementation. Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~mchung/jdk12/webrevs/8209553/webrev.00 I will create a CSR. Mandy [1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8208172