Maybe my explanation wasn't clear. TextureIO in JOGL 1 became AWTTextureIO in JOGL 2. TextureIO in JOGL 2 doesn't have the same orientation than AWTTextureIO in JOGL 2 and TextureIO in JOGL 1. That's why using the same class with the same image broke your code.
What do you mean by "simple text"? There are 2 text renderers in JOGL, com.jogamp.opengl.util.awt.TextureRenderer and the Graph API.