How to Install Eclipse Oxygen IDE on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 / 18.04

For developers looking for a great IDE platform to build their applications and manage their codes, Eclipse should be a great place to start… Eclipse is a popular Java Integrated Development Environment (IDE), but also works with C/C++ IDE and PHP IDE and other languages..

This brief tutorial is going to show students and new users how to easily install Eclipse Oxygen IDE installer on Ubuntu 16.04 / 17.10 / 18.04 desktop…

Eclipse is not only good at developing applications but you can use its collection of tools to easily enhance your Eclipse desktop IDE, including GUI builders and tools for modeling, charting and reporting, testing, and more.

To install Eclipse on Ubuntu, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Install Java JDK8

Eclipse requires Java JDK to be installed on the system you want to use… At this time, only Java JDK 8 is fully compatible.. to install JDK, use the steps below:

The easiest way to install Oracle Java JDK 8 on Ubuntu is via a third party PPA… To add that PPA, run the commands below

sudo add-apt-repository ppa:webupd8team/java

After running the commands above, you should see a prompt to accept the PPA key onto Ubuntu… accept and continue

Now that the PPA repository has been added to Ubuntu, run the commands below to download Oracle Java 9 installer…. the installer should install the latest Java JDK 9 on your Ubuntu machines.

sudo apt update
sudo apt install oracle-java8-installer

When you run the commands above you’ll be prompted to access the license terms of the software… accept and continue..

Set Oracle JDK8 as default, to do that, install the oracle-java8-set-default package. This will automatically set the JAVA env variable.

sudo apt install oracle-java8-set-default

The command above will automatically set Java 9 as the default… and that should complete your installation, you can check you java version by running following command.

javac -version

Step 2: Download Eclipse Oxygen

Now that Java JDK 8 is installed, got and download Eclipse Oxygen IDE package for your systems.. the link below can be used to get it.

https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/

Extract the downloaded package to the /opt directory using the commands below… by default Eclipse package should be downloaded into the ~/Downloads folder of your home directory…

Step 3: Install Eclipse IDE

Use the commands below to extract the content in the ~/Downloads folder… The next line launches the installer…

tar xfz ~/Downloads/eclipse-inst-linux64.tar.gz
~/Downloads/eclipse-installer/eclipse-inst

Select the package IDE you want to install and continue…

Use the onscreen instructions to complete the installer.. Accept the default installation directory and continue

Next, accept the license terms and continue… wait for Eclipse installer to download and install all the packages..

After downloading the installer should complete… all you have to do is launch the program…

Step 3: Create Eclipse App Launcher

Now that Eclipse is downloaded and installed, create a launcher for the application… to do that, run the commands below

nano .local/share/applications/eclipse.desktop

Next, copy and paste the content below into the file and save

[Desktop Entry]
Name=Eclipse JEE Oxygen
Type=Application
Exec=/home/richard/eclipse/jee-oxygen/eclipse/eclipse
Terminal=false
Icon=/home/richard/eclipse/jee-oxygen/eclipse/icon.xpm
Comment=Integrated Development Environment
NoDisplay=false
Categories=Development;IDE;
Name[en]=Eclipse

Replace the highlighted username (richard) with your own account name… also, the Exec = location and icon.xpm should depend on where Eclipse got installed on your system..

Save the file and exit…

You should then have a launcher for Eclipse JEE Oxygen… open Dash or the activities overview and search for Eclipse… then launch.

To create additional IDEs, you must repeat step 3 by launching the installer again and created an application launcher for that IDE…

When the app launches, you should be able to configure it for your environment..

Enjoy!