How to pin Eclipse to the Unity launcher?

For 11.10 and newer

First, create a .desktop file to eclipse:

gedit ~/.local/share/applications/opt_eclipse.desktop

Then, paste this inside (dont forget to edit Exec and Icon values):

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse Integrated Development Environment
Icon=** something like /opt/eclipse/icon.xpm **
Exec= ** something like /opt/eclipse/eclipse **
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;IDE;Java;
StartupWMClass=Eclipse

After that, open that folder with nautilus:

nautilus ~/.local/share/applications

If you want to use this launcher outside dash/launcher (ex: as a desktop launcher) you need to add execution permission by right clicking the file and choosing Properties -> Permissions -> Allow execution, or, via the command-line:

chmod +x ~/.local/share/applications/opt_eclipse.desktop

Finally drop opt_eclipse.desktop to launcher.

For Ubuntu 11.10, 12.04, 12.10

If the applications folder does not exist inside ~/.local/share/ create it

mkdir ~/.local/share/applications

Check if your installation left you with a workable .desktop file for Eclipse and copy it if exists

cp /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop ~/.local/share/applications/

If the file does not exist create a .desktop file for Eclipse in your ~/.local/share/applications/ folder using gnome-desktop-item-edit, ie:

gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/.local/share/applications/

On the name set it to Eclipse, on the command enter the path to the binary file of Eclipse, insert a comment if you want and click the icon to select the icon that you desire for Eclipse.

Press ok when you are finished.

After copying the file or creating your own open that folder location

nautilus ~/.local/share/applications/

Locate the file you just created and drag it to the launcher

11.04

If user21580's answer doesn't work (great suggestion, but I think it didn't work for me when I installed Indigo), you can try adding an eclipse.desktop file to ~/.local/share/applications/, with these contents:

#!/usr/bin/env xdg-open

[Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Type=Application
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Icon=<path-to-eclipse-install>/icon.xpm
Name=Eclipse Indigo 3.7
#Exec=env UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 <path-to-eclipse-install>/eclipse
Exec=env <path-to-eclipse-install>/eclipse

If you experience bugs, you can try the Exec line which is commented out instead of the current one.

References:

• How can I edit/create new launcher items in Unity by hand?

Let me show you how to create a custom launcher and pin it to the Launcher.

1) First, install gnome-panel:

sudo apt-get install --no-install-recommends gnome-panel

2) To create a new desktop shortcut run the following command either in the terminal or using Alt-F2:

gnome-desktop-item-edit --create-new ~/Desktop

A window will pop up, submit your shortcut details and click OK:

Your shortcut will now appear on your desktop.

Then drag your new shortcut from Desktop to your Launcher.

That's it!

If you have donwloaded Eclipse from the website instead of install it from repositories you can lock the launcher doesn't work. You can solve this by writting the file with extension .desktop, in our case eclipse.desktop.

 [Desktop Entry]
 Name=Eclipse
 Comment=Eclipse
 Exec=/path/eclipse
 Icon=/path/icon.xpm
 Terminal=false
 Type=Application

Where /path is where you've installed eclipse. After you have saved it, you have to give execution permission:

$ chmod +x eclipse.desktop

Then you execute it with Nautilus and by clicking (right click) over the laucher you can lock to the launcher. And you can launch the app correctly.

I think this is a cleaner version:

[Desktop Entry]
Type=Application
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse Integrated Development Environment
Icon=eclipse
Exec=eclipse
Terminal=false
Categories=Development;IDE;Java;

You should add this to /usr/local/share/applications/eclipse.desktop and symlink eclipse on /usr/bin. You might want to change the icon path if your theme doesn't have a eclipse button (ex. ambiance/radiance).

If I'm not mistaken this is the file that comes with galileo from the repos (wich I removed), and I've been using it with Helios and now Indigo.

18.04

Click Show Applications, find Eclipse in the list, right click & Add to Favourites.

For 12.04
I prefer to install from repository. This just works for me and I document the Graphical way to do it here.

If you must install the portable version(getting the tar.gz from the eclipse website) here's the best way I've found to get portable working and locked to the Launcher.

Download the eclipse portable and extract to your Desktop. In a terminal:

sudo apt-get install eclipse-platform
sudo mv Desktop/eclipse /opt/eclipse
/opt/eclipse/eclipse

Right click the icon in the launcher bar and pin to bar. I can verify that it's portable and not the platform because I have LOADS of plug-ins installed which don't appear when launched this way.

You may find that creating a .desktop file works, but that you run into mysterious behaviour if you have more than one portable instance installed.

Try

Exec=/bin/bash /home/USERNAME/eclipse/eclipse

or make /home/USERNAME/eclipse/eclipse executable

sudo chmod u+x /home/USERNAME/eclipse/eclipse

and use:

Exec=/home/USERNAME/eclipse/eclipse

Make sure if you're using the 32bit version on a 64bit machine, you install the 32bit libraries (ia32libs-multiarch i think is the package in Precise).

Alternatively, if you're trying to run 64bit Eclipse on a 32bit machine, you need to download the 32bit version instead.