Home / ubuntu / Questions / 63665
In Process
javanoob
Asked: 2011-09-30 18:33:29 +0800 CST

Why can't I launch eclipse from a terminal or run it via gmrun?

  • 772

I can't launch eclipse from either terminal or gmrun but I can do so using Applications -> Programming -> Eclipse.

Here are the screenshots:

1) Using Gmrun: I can see that gmrun is recognizing the eclipse command but when I enter it, nothing happens.

enter image description here

2) Using Terminal: when I type eclipse, I get the following message:

terminal

Thanks!

gnome-terminal

4 Answers

  1. Ubuntu has its own directories from which it will check for applications (like /usr/bin). So If you just downloaded eclipse to /opt then of course it won't be recognized. If you want it to be recognized, you have two options, either install from Ubuntu standard repos (with disadvantage missing latest version) or install your eclipse on those directories / symlink it (both unrecommended).

    BTW why not cd /opt/eclipse and just run ./eclipse?

    • 8

  2. Do the following steps to fix it. Assume you extracted eclipse in /opt/eclipse. Your eclipse executable's path is /opt/eclipse/eclipse

    Fix permission

    sudo chmod -R a+x /opt/eclipse

    Make a link of eclipse (executable)

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

    Again fix the permission

    sudo chmod a+x /usr/local/bin/eclipse

    Check in terminal to ensure that system detects eclipse which eclipse

    output: /usr/local/bin/eclipse

    Now you can run eclipse by typing eclipse in terminal or search in gmrun (ATL+F2)

    • 2

  3. Or maybe you could try to change your $PATH environment variable in the .profile file in your home directory? Like adding a line export PATH=$PATH:/opt/eclipse to the file (at or near the end of the file).

    • 1

  4. You can do the following:

    open ~/.bashrc with your favourite editor and add the following lines to the end of the file:

    if [ -d "/opt/eclipse" ] ; then
    PATH="/opt/eclipse:$PATH"
fi

    Close and open the terminal.

    This is what I did in Unity and it worked for me. I am not quite sure if it will work on the Gnome environment.

    • 0