Eclipse is leading open source development environments for Java, with support for JEE and JME development and entire ecosystem of plugins that makes it suitable for any software development task.
At the moment of writing, Ubuntu repositories contain Eclipse 3.2.2 while latest release is version 3.4.1. If one wants to stay current with Eclipse version, it has to be installed manually.
Note: manually installed Eclipse will not be managed by apt, Debian package managing tool, so user has to take care of updates.
When installing from distributable archives, Eclipse has only dependency – Java JDK. In this example I will use Sun JDK. To verify which Java has been installed, type in terminal:
java -version
To install it Sun’s JDK ver 6, issue the following command:
apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
Eclipse Installation
Eclipse, both 32 and 64 bit can be downloaded from
http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/
In this example, we’ll install Eclipse Ganymede 3.4.1. Please verify current version when installing it and adjust URLs and commands accordingly.
When download finishes, we’ll uncompress the archive. Here I suppose that archive is saved in user’s home directory. If file name changed since moment of writing, modify command line accordingly.
tar -xzvf eclipse-jee-ganymede-SR1-linux-gtk.tar.gz
This will create directory /home/[USER_NAME]/eclipse
switch to the eclipse directory:
cd ~/eclipse
and start eclipse:
./eclipse
If you would like to start Eclipse in background, type
nohup ./eclipse &
Conclusion
That’s it – Eclipse is ready to use. You could add Eclipse to the programs menu, so that in future you don’t need to start Eclipse from command line.
21 responses so far ↓
JC // December 17, 2008 at 2:53 am |
Thanks for the instructions, pretty straight forward. I am using Kubuntu and to add Eclipse to the programs menu, I did the following:
Right click on the K icon menu at the left bottom, selected Menu Editor and then added a new item to the Development Group.
tutos Linux // December 20, 2008 at 7:04 pm |
nice subject
Tutos Linux
ME // January 30, 2009 at 9:16 pm |
Where is the program’s icon located to put in the menu?
newsintegrator // January 30, 2009 at 9:32 pm |
This procedure doesn’t setup icon in the menu. It needs to be added manually – try for example this article.
ME // January 30, 2009 at 9:36 pm |
Did that….
everything works.
What I cannot find is where in the eclipse folder is the icon I can use in the menu.
ME
said // February 19, 2009 at 8:34 am |
i hve eclipse 3.1 . before i install this eclipse do i need to uninstall the old one?
newsintegrator // February 19, 2009 at 1:45 pm |
No you don’t need to uninstall the old one – just install new Eclipse in separate directory. If you use same directory for workspace, project information will be updated if needed. Pay attention to install any custom plugins you might have in Eclipse 3.1 if you want to use them in new install.
Scribe // March 1, 2009 at 9:41 am |
in ubuntu you have to go to System -> Preferences -> Main Menu and it will open the main menu configuration window. You go down to programming on the left side, and check the program you want to be displayed in your menu in the right side.
Greg // April 4, 2009 at 10:19 pm |
Thanks for the walkthrough! I’m an Eclipse veteran but new to Linux and tar.
newsintegrator // April 25, 2009 at 9:11 pm |
You’re very welcome.
don // May 8, 2009 at 12:19 am |
I followed the above instructions, but when launching eclipse, I get the splash screen with a progress bar, then it goes away, and I get a dialogue box titled ‘eclipse’ that is empty and just sits there.
newsintegrator // May 8, 2009 at 1:54 am |
In working Eclipse installation, after splash screen comes dialog that offers us to choose workspace folder. What is JDK version that you have installed? If it is not Sun’s JDK, install it using: sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk or sudo apt-get install sun-java5-jdk and then try to run Eclipse again.
VJK // May 16, 2009 at 8:48 pm |
An Eclipse icon at least for version 3.4.4 can be found under [install_dir]/features/org.eclipse.platform[version]/eclipse_update_120.jpg
don // May 18, 2009 at 1:11 am |
don@mekong:~/Desktop$ sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jdk
[sudo] password for don:
Reading package lists… Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information… Done
sun-java6-jdk is already the newest version.
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
don@mekong:~/Desktop$
JR // May 22, 2009 at 8:17 am |
i have a problem my eclipse don’t start after download finished
newsintegrator // May 22, 2009 at 2:09 pm |
Could you provide a little bit more details?
JR // May 22, 2009 at 2:28 pm |
i resove with this information
http://wiki.eclipse.org/IRC_FAQ
Varun // May 27, 2009 at 10:44 am |
I have installed eclipse on Ubuntu. but when i run it , it gives the following error
Java Runtime Environment (JRE) or Java Development Kit (JDK)
must be available in order to run Eclipse. No Java virtual machine
was found after searching the following locations:
/home/varun/eclipse/jre/bin/java
java in your current PATH
I have my JRE installed in /usr/java/jre1.6.0_13 .
Please help
markosca // August 3, 2009 at 12:57 pm |
I have the same problem
Kutti // November 16, 2009 at 7:32 am |
Hi,
Whenever i try to save my application, it is giving Null pointer exeception.
Details abt the environment:
Ubuntu : Jaunty
Eclipse ganymede: 3.4.2
Can u help me in this regards
newsintegrator // November 16, 2009 at 11:29 pm |
Hi,
I had once same problem with MyEclipse IDE on Windows. I do not remember what fixed it, but try creating new workspace.
Hope this helps,
boris