Velocity causing NullPointer Exception due to velocity.log not being writable when webwork inits its velocity helper.

Click on Administration --> Click Project --> Select a Project ---> Project Role: View Members --> Edit a Role.

This is when there is a null pointer exception, I will attach the screen in later comments.
It seems that the application is trying to write to root /velocity.log file, which is not the case.

Someone in support gave me a classpath.jsp to find out which velocity.properties was being used. This was of no help since I think it produced wrong output, and also provides misleading information about the actual velocity.properties being used.

We have tried everything from moving around velocity.properties to put in explicitly in classpath. Nothing works. This is a bug

Below is the stack trace
---------------------------------
PANIC : Error configuring AvalonLogSystem : java.io.FileNotFoundException: /velocity.log (Permission denied)
PANIC : Error configuring AvalonLogSystem : java.io.FileNotFoundException: /velocity.log (Permission denied)
2007-04-11 10:41:22,188 [ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '2' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)' ERROR [webwork.view.velocity.VelocityHelper] Unable to configure AvalonLogSystem : java.io.FileNotFoundException: /velocity.log (Permission denied)
java.lang.Exception: Unable to configure AvalonLogSystem : java.io.FileNotFoundException: /velocity.log (Permission denied)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.AvalonLogSystem.init(AvalonLogSystem.java:92)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.log.LogManager.createLogSystem(LogManager.java:127)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.initializeLogger(RuntimeInstance.java:553)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.init(RuntimeInstance.java:226)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeInstance.init(RuntimeInstance.java:461)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.RuntimeSingleton.init(RuntimeSingleton.java:208)
at org.apache.velocity.app.Velocity.init(Velocity.java:106)
at webwork.view.velocity.VelocityHelper.initVelocity(VelocityHelper.java:128)
at webwork.view.velocity.VelocityHelper.getContext(VelocityHelper.java:159)
at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webwork.JiraPluginWebworkVelocityServlet.service(JiraPluginWebworkVelocityServlet.java:43)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:223)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:125)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:283)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.TailFilter.doFilter(TailFilter.java:26)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.AccessLogFilter.doFilter(AccessLogFilter.java:51)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.SecurityFilter.doFilter(SecurityFilter.java:83)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.LoginFilter.doFilter(LoginFilter.java:92)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.ActionCleanupDelayFilter.doFilter(ActionCleanupDelayFilter.java:31)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.RequestCleanupFilter.doFilter(RequestCleanupFilter.java:31)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:37)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.appconsistency.db.DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.doFilter(DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.java:39)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.RequestDispatcherImpl.invokeServlet(RequestDispatcherImpl.java:501)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.RequestDispatcherImpl.forward(RequestDispatcherImpl.java:245)
2007-04-11 10:41:22,188 [ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '2' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)' ERROR [com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager] Exception getting message body from Velocity: java.lang.NullPointerException
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.apache.velocity.context.InternalContextAdapterImpl.get(InternalContextAdapterImpl.java:162)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.getVariableValue(ASTReference.java:623)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.execute(ASTReference.java:151)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTReference.evaluate(ASTReference.java:307)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTExpression.evaluate(ASTExpression.java:45)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.ASTIfStatement.render(ASTIfStatement.java:68)
at org.apache.velocity.runtime.parser.node.SimpleNode.render(SimpleNode.java:230)
at org.apache.velocity.Template.merge(Template.java:256)
at org.apache.velocity.app.VelocityEngine.mergeTemplate(VelocityEngine.java:450)
at com.atlassian.velocity.DefaultVelocityManager.getEncodedBody(DefaultVelocityManager.java:76)
at com.atlassian.jira.plugin.webwork.JiraPluginWebworkVelocityServlet.service(JiraPluginWebworkVelocityServlet.java:48)
at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:856)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper$ServletServiceAction.run(StubSecurityHelper.java:223)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.StubSecurityHelper.invokeServlet(StubSecurityHelper.java:125)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.ServletStubImpl.execute(ServletStubImpl.java:283)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.TailFilter.doFilter(TailFilter.java:26)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.AccessLogFilter.doFilter(AccessLogFilter.java:51)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.SecurityFilter.doFilter(SecurityFilter.java:83)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.seraph.filter.LoginFilter.doFilter(LoginFilter.java:92)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.ActionCleanupDelayFilter.doFilter(ActionCleanupDelayFilter.java:31)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.web.filters.RequestCleanupFilter.doFilter(RequestCleanupFilter.java:31)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.core.filters.AbstractEncodingFilter.doFilter(AbstractEncodingFilter.java:37)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at com.atlassian.jira.appconsistency.db.DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.doFilter(DatabaseCompatibilityEnforcerFilter.java:39)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.FilterChainImpl.doFilter(FilterChainImpl.java:42)
at weblogic.servlet.internal.RequestDispatcherImpl.invokeServlet(RequestDispatcherImpl.java:501)