I want to develop swing applications using the visual editor in Eclipse, but it need Eclipse 3.6. But it is already up-to-date using synaptic package manager. Is there a separate PPA for the version 3.6?
2 Answers
There is an German article that describes how to package your own Eclipse. I just summarize it.
Install build tools:
sudo apt-get install fakeroot dpkg-dev debhelper unp
Prepare directory:
mkdir eclipse-platform
Download eclipse and unpack it:
unp eclipse-platform-3.6.2-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/lib mv eclipse eclipse-platform/usr/lib/eclipse
Now some commands for the scripting:
mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/bin nano eclipse-platform/usr/bin/eclipse
Paste this content:
#!/bin/sh export UBUNTU_MENUPROXY=0 exec /usr/lib/eclipse/eclipse "$@"
Make it executable:
chmod +x eclipse-platform/usr/bin/eclipse
Now the Desktop entry:
mkdir -p eclipse-platform/usr/share/applications nano eclipse-platform/usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
with following content
[Desktop Entry] Encoding=UTF-8 Type=Application Name=Eclipse Exec=eclipse Terminal=false Icon=/usr/lib/eclipse/icon.xpm Comment=Eclipse Integrated Development Environment Categories=Development;IDE;
A control File
mkdir eclipse-platform/DEBIAN nano eclipse-platform/DEBIAN/control
with the content
Package: eclipse-platform Version: 3.6.2-1 Architecture: amd64 Maintainer: YourName Depends: openjdk-6-jre | sun-java6-jre Section: devel Priority: optional Description: Eclipse IDE, static-linked, minimal plugins.
Now you can build a package and install it into your system
fakeroot dpkg -b eclipse-platform eclipse-platform_3.6.2-1_amd64.deb sudo dpkg -i eclipse-platform_3.6.2-1_amd64.deb
Done! With this you can install your own eclipse the debian way.
You need to download Eclipse 3.6 from the official site, there is no PPA available.