UbuntuHandbook

How to Install (Remove) Eclipse IDE in Ubuntu 22.04, 20.04 the official way

Last updated: January 2, 2025

This is a step by step guide shows how to install the Eclipse IDE in Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 22.04, Ubuntu 22.04, and their based systems, such as Linux Mint 22/21.

For Java developers, Eclipse is easy to install in Ubuntu through Snap package from either App Center or Ubuntu Software (for 22.04 and earlier). Though it runs in sandbox environment.

If you want to use Eclipse for C/C++, PHP, or other language developing, or you don’t like running in sandbox, then you may use the official installer.

1. Download & start Eclipse Installer:

Firstly go to the official download page, and grab the installer:

Download Eclipse

Then extract the tarball, and navigate into the result folder. Right-click and select “Run” the eclipse-inst file to start the installer.

For choice, you may right-click on blank area in that folder and select “Open in Terminal“, then run ./eclipse-inst command in the pop-up terminal instead:

2. Install Eclipse:

When the installer wizard opens, choose “Eclipse for Java Developers”, “Eclipse for C/C++ Developers”, or other options depends on which you want to install.

Next, choose either a local Java VM (if installed) or select download one from web, and change installation folder if you want (default selections are OK). Finally, click on “Install” button, and accept the license to start installing the IDE:

The software is by default installed to the user home folder for single user use. Once installed, you can launch it either from system application launcher or the desktop shortcut (need to first right-click and choose “Allow Launching”).

How to Remove Eclipse Completely:

The software is installed by default in user’s home directory. Simply open the file manager, and remove the eclipse folder and eclipse-workspace folder.

For the desktop shortcut, just move it to trash. For the app icon in start menu, press Ctrl+Alt+T to open terminal and run commands:

navigate to app shortcut folder for local user:
```
cd .local/share/applications/
```
remove all Eclipse related desktop entry files:
```
rm *eclipse*.desktop epp*.desktop
```

In Howtos eclipse

Eclipse 4.8 Available to Install via Snap in Ubuntu

Last updated: July 4, 2018

Eclipse 4.8 Photon was released a week ago. You can now install it in Ubuntu 18.04, Ubuntu 17.10, Ubuntu 16.04 easily via snap package.

Eclipse Photon release highlights:

Full Eclipse IDE user experience for building, debugging, running and packaging Rust applications.
Expanded C# editing and debug capabilities, including syntax coloring, autocomplete suggestions, code diagnostics, and code navigation tools.
Java 9, Java 10 and JUnit 5 support.
Dark theme improvements in text colors, background color, popup dialogs, mark occurrences, and more.

How to Install Eclipse 4.8 Photon in Ubuntu:

The community has built the snap package of Eclipse Photon. It’s an universal Linux package format that bundles all its dependencies, and auto-updates itself once a new release is published.

The Eclipse 4.8.0 snap can by easily installed in Ubuntu Software:

Note that there are two versions of Eclipse in Ubuntu Software. Take a look at the version number before installing the package.

You can also install the snap by running command in terminal:

snap install --classic eclipse

In addition:

1. For Ubuntu 16.04 users never installed a snap package, make sure snapd daemon is installed via command:

sudo apt-get install snapd snapd-xdg-open

2. For Java environment, either install the OpenJDK via command:

sudo apt-get install default-jre

For Oracle Java 8 or Java 10, see this how to tutorial.

In Howtos, News eclipse, java

How to Install The Latest Eclipse 4.7.3a in Ubuntu 18.04

Last updated: May 30, 2018

The latest release of Eclipse IDE now is quite easy to install in Ubuntu 16.04, and Ubuntu 18.04 since it’s made into snap package.

Snap is an universal Linux package format. It ships with most run-time libraries so it’s normally large in file size. The snap applications run in sandbox and they can be installed directly from Ubuntu Software.

1. So you can just open Ubuntu Software, search for and install Eclipse 4.7.3a snap package:

For those prefer Linux command, run command in terminal to install the Eclipse snap:

snap install --classic eclipse

2. Eclipse needs java. If you don’t have it, run command in terminal to install OpenJDK java environment:

sudo apt-get install default-jre

You can also install Oracle Java 8 and/or 10 via this tutorial.

In Howtos eclipse, snap

How to Install The Latest Eclipse Release in Ubuntu 14.04

Last updated: January 13, 2016

This quick tutorial is going to show you how to install the latest release of Eclipse, while the Ubuntu repositories has an very old version.

So far, the latest is Eclipse Kepler (4.3.2). You can follow below steps to install it on Ubuntu 14.04 or other Ubuntu releases.

1. Install Java.

If you don’t have Java installed on your system. Click the link below to bring up Ubuntu Software Center and click install OpenJDK Java 7:

Or, install Oracle Java from this link.

2. Download Eclipse from its website

You may check out your OS Type 32-bit or 64-bit by going to System Settings -> Details -> Overview

3. Extract Eclipse to /opt/ for global use

Press Ctrl+Alt+T on keyboard to open the terminal. When it opens, run the command below to extract Eclipse to /opt/:

cd /opt/ && sudo tar -zxvf ~/Downloads/eclipse-*.tar.gz

You may replace “eclipse-*.tar.gz” (without quote) to the exact package name if the command does not work.

Don’t like Linux commands? You can do this by opening Nautilus file browser via root: Press Alt+F2 -> run gksudo nautilus.

Once done, you should see the eclipse folder under /opt/ directory.

4. Create a launcher shortcut for Eclipse

Press Ctrl+Alt+T, paste below command into the terminal and hit enter (install gksu from Software Center if below command does not work).

gksudo gedit /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

Above command will create and open the launcher file for eclipse with gedit text editor.

Paste below content into the opened file and save it.

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Eclipse 4
Type=Application
Exec=/opt/eclipse/eclipse
Terminal=false
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Development;IDE;
Name[en]=Eclipse

Finally open Eclipse from Unity Dash search results and enjoy!