Quick ‘manual’ Eclipse install on Ubuntu

Since I always had trouble with the Eclipse version that is avaialable via the Ubuntu repositories I often need to install Elcipse on new machinery. Hence I am documenting the process for myself and hopefully it might help others as well.

  by  jah~ 

If you haven’t got the Java dependencies

Java dependencies install

sudo apt-get install openjdk-7-jre openjdk-7-jdk icedtea-7-plugin

Eclipse download

Note: download link needs to be updated – current as of 2014-01-27

cd /tmp
wget http://www.eclipse.org/downloads/download.php?file=/technology/epp/downloads/release/luna/M4/eclipse-standard-luna-M4-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz&mirror_id=1051
tar -xzf eclipse-standard-luna-M4-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
sudo mv eclipse/ /opt
rm -f eclipse-standard-luna-M4-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

Create symlink

ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/bin/eclipse

Create application launcher

NOTE: (Edit 2014-01-27) as of Ubuntu 13.10 you need to change the ‘exec’ line in the desktop launcher to include “env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0” as you otherwise will not see any of the menu items in the top nav-bar.

sudo touch /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "[Desktop Entry]" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Version=4.2" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Name=Eclipse" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Comment=Integrated Development Environment" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 /opt/eclipse/eclipse" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Type=Application" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Terminal=false" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "NoDisplay=false" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo echo "Categories=Development;IDE" >> /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
sudo update-desktop-database