Install Eclipse 3.2+

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Feb 03, 2010Version comment
2 min read
  • Eclipse - http://www.eclipse.org/
    • Note: If you already have eclipse 3.1.x installed, your best best is to start over with a fresh install rather than attempting to upgrade
    • Note: If you have not installed eclipse already, you should download the WebTools Platform: All-in-one package for Eclipse 3.3+ which includes Eclipse and all of the necessary webtools packages, this is much faster and easier than downloading them seperately, you can skip the WebTools step if you do this, here are instructions to install the Eclipse WebTools
  1. Download the newest stable version http://www.eclipse.org/
  2. Extract the downloaded file to /opt
    • Windows users should extract to c:\
    • Mac users should use the installer and put it in Applications
  3. Run eclipse to verify it works (/opt/eclipse/eclipse)
    • Windows users: c:\eclipse\eclipse.exe to run eclipse
    • Note: If it does not work, there is probably a problem with your java install
  4. Set the memory settings for Eclipse
    • The default memory settings for Eclipse are much too low to handle the number of webapps in a full Sakai installation
    1. Shutdown eclipse if it is running
    2. Edit the eclipse.ini file in the directory you extracted/installed eclipse
    3. Change the settings from something like this: 
      -vmargs
-Xms40m
-Xmx256m
      to something like this (leave any params that do not match these alone): 
      --launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-vmargs
-Xms128m
-Xmx1024m
-XX:+UseParallelGC
      • Windows users should not use notepad to edit this file, use wordpad or edit (command line)
      • Mac users will need to take additional steps to edit the eclipse.ini file
      1. Control-click on the Eclipse Application icon and select Show Package Contents
      2. Double-click on the Contents folder
      3. Double-click on the MacOS folder, the eclipse.ini file should be here
      4. Full path: eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse.ini
  5. Set the JVM
    • The default JVM will be the one in the JRE, things will work better if you change this to the one in the J2SE
    1. Startup eclipse if it is not running
    2. Select Window -> Preferences -> Java -> Installed JREs
    3. Select the current installed JRE
    4. Click the Edit button
    5. Click Browse and navigate to the home directory of your JAVA installation (e.g. /opt/java)
    6. Click OK to save and then OK to Finish
      • Running Eclipse with a different JVM from the default
        Add -vm /opt/java/bin/java after the eclipse executable
      • You must include the full path to the java executable file