The version of Eclipse to install is at Tested/Verified Tool Versions.
The easiest way to install eclipse is to get the Scala version of eclipse from the Scala IDE site.
If you want to configure Eclipse from a more basic installation with fewer built-in features, then the instructions below may be helpful.
Go to: http://www.eclipse.org/
You will be installing Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers or Eclipse for Java Developers. Select the download link appropriate for your version of Linux (32-bit vs. 64-bit)
Select the appropriate mirror and Save the file to your local machine making note of the location.
Open a Terminal and cd to the location where you saved the file.
Type the following command in the Terminal (substitute the file name you downloaded for the example here):
$ tar -zxvf eclipse-jee-indigo-SR2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz |
This will extract the 'eclipse' folder to this location.
If you are not happy with this location (in my case it's in Downloads) you can move it to a more convenient location
$ cd ~ $ mkdir Programs $ mv Downloads/eclipse Programs |
The above just creates a directory called Programs in your Home and moves the 'eclipse' folder and its contents to this new location.
We need to establish what our HOME directory is by entering the following into the Terminal:
$ echo $HOME |
The value returned back in my case is "/home/developer". In your case it would be "home/<username>".
Now we need to make it convenient to execute Eclipse.
$ su $ touch /usr/bin/eclipse $ chmod 755 /usr/bin/eclipse $ vi /usr/bin/eclipse |
In the next step, ECLIPSE_HOME will be "HOME/Programs/eclipse".
Enter the following into the file:
#!/bin/bash export ECLIPSE_HOME="/home/developer/Programs/eclipse" $ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse $* |
Save the file.
Back in the terminal, enter the following:
$ ln -s /usr/bin/eclipse /bin/eclipse $ vi /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop |
Enter the following into the file:
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Name=Eclipse Comment=Eclipse IDE Exec=eclipse Icon=/home/developer/Programs/eclipse/icon.xpm Terminal=false Type=Application Categories=GNOME;Application;Development; StartupNotify=true |
The above simply creates a shortcut in Applications that you can use rather than always typing 'eclipse' in the Terminal to start Eclipse. Save the file.
Back in the Terminal, cd to the eclipse directory:
$ cd ~/Programs/eclipse $ chown -R developer:developer configuration/ $ exit |
The above simply prevents the "Invalid Configuration Location" error.
At this point, you have two ways to start Eclipse. Applications -> Eclipse Shortcut or you can simply type 'eclipse' in the Terminal.