Ubuntu – How to update Eclipse 3.5.2 to 3.6.2

11.04eclipseidejava

I want to develop swing applications using the visual editor in Eclipse, but it need Eclipse 3.6.
But it is already up-to-date using synaptic package manager. Is there a separate PPA for the version 3.6?

Best Answer

There is an German article that describes how to package your own Eclipse. I just summarize it.

Install build tools:

sudo apt-get install fakeroot dpkg-dev debhelper unp
Prepare directory:
```
mkdir eclipse-platform
```

Download eclipse and unpack it:

unp eclipse-platform-3.6.2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/lib
mv eclipse eclipse-platform/usr/lib/eclipse

Now some commands for the scripting:

mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/bin
nano eclipse-platform/usr/bin/eclipse

Paste this content:

#!/bin/sh
export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0
exec /usr/lib/eclipse/eclipse "$@"

Make it executable:

chmod +x eclipse-platform/usr/bin/eclipse

Now the Desktop entry:

mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/share/applications
nano eclipse-platform/usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

with following content

[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Type=Application
Name=Eclipse
Exec=eclipse
Terminal=false
Icon=/usr/lib/eclipse/icon.xpm
Comment=Eclipse Integrated Development Environment
Categories=Development;IDE;

A control File

mkdir eclipse-platform/DEBIAN
nano eclipse-platform/DEBIAN/control

with the content

Package: eclipse-platform
Version: 3.6.2-1
Architecture: amd64
Maintainer: YourName
Depends: openjdk-6-jre | sun-java6-jre
Section: devel
Priority: optional
Description: Eclipse IDE, static-linked, minimal plugins.

Now you can build a package and install it into your system

 fakeroot dpkg -b eclipse-platform eclipse-platform_3.6.2-1_amd64.deb
 sudo dpkg -i eclipse-platform_3.6.2-1_amd64.deb

Done! With this you can install your own eclipse the debian way.

Related Solutions

Eclipse Installation – How to Install Eclipse on Ubuntu

If you've downloaded Eclipse from their official website, follow these steps for the installation.

Extract the eclipse.XX.YY.tar.gz using
```
tar -zxvf eclipse.XX.YY.tar.gz
```
Become root and Copy the extracted folder to /opt
```
sudo mv eclipse.XX.YY /opt
```

Create a desktop file and install it:

gedit eclipse.desktop

and copy the following to the eclipse.desktop file

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Eclipse 
Type=Application
Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 eclipse44
Terminal=false
Icon=eclipse
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Development;IDE;
Name[en]=Eclipse

and make sure that it has executable permission, then execute the following command to automatically install it in the unity:

sudo desktop-file-install eclipse.desktop

Create a symlink in /usr/local/bin using

sudo ln -s /opt/eclipse/eclipse /usr/local/bin/eclipse44

For eclipse icon to be displayed in dash, eclipse icon can be added as
```
sudo cp /opt/eclipse/icon.xpm /usr/share/pixmaps/eclipse.xpm
```
Don't forget that you need to have either OpenJDK or Sun Java installed to be able to run eclipse. Check this question for more information about Java installation. Here is a simple example of installing Open JDK 1.6:
```
sudo apt-get install openjdk-6-jdk
```
Launch Eclipse and then give it the required permissions to modify the osgi file:
```
sudo chown -R $USER:$USER /opt/eclipse/configuration/org.eclipse.osgi
```
NB! You must launch Eclipse first, because the org.eclipse.osgi directory is created only after the first launch.

That's it.

Ubuntu – How to completely uninstall eclipse

Run following commands:

sudo apt-get autoremove eclipse*
rm -r ~/.eclipse/

This will uninstall the dependencies and related packages that were installed along with eclipse. This should do the trick.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

Eclipse Installation – How to Install Eclipse on Ubuntu

Ubuntu – How to completely uninstall eclipse

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