Donovan Brown

Technology Blog

Adding Eclipse to Launcher on Ubuntu 16.04

04 April 2018 Donovan Work (26)

I recently upgraded to a Lenovo X1 Yoga. It is a brilliant machine and I would highly recommend it. With a new Yoga, I decided to installed Ubuntu 16.04 on my first generation Yoga.  So far so good. The machine is a lot of fun with Ubuntu installed.  The only issue I am having is with my wireless card.image Sometimes it works and sometimes it does not. I think the card itself may actually be going out. Nevertheless, I am setting it up as a development machine. I was able to install Visual Studio Code with no issue. I also wanted to install Eclipse.  The install was pretty easy. I just downloaded the archive and extracted it into a Programs folder I created under my Home folder.  The only problem was I could not drag and drop the Eclipse program to my program Launcher like I did with Visual Studio Code. I did some searching and was able to figure it out. This post is to show you how I was able to get Eclipse pinned to my Launcher on Ubuntu 16.04.

  1. Open a text editor
  2. Copy and paste the following text into the editor: 
    [Desktop Entry]
Version=1.0
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Java IDE
Type=Application
Categories=Development;IDE;
Exec=/home/{username}/Programs/eclipse/eclipse
Terminal=false
StartupNotify=true
Icon=/home/{username}/Programs/eclipse/icon.xpm
Name[en_US]=Eclipse
  3. Update any paths if you extracted Eclipse to a different location
  4. Save the file as eclipse.desktop in /home/{username}/.local/share/applications/
  5. Reboot your machine
  6. Search for Eclipse
  7. Drag and drop the Eclipse icon to the launcher
    image
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Comments (26) -

  • vinod

    1/29/2018 5:14:58 PM | Reply

    Any video on this?

    • Donovan

      2/2/2018 5:59:08 PM | Reply

      No. Is there a part that is unclear?

  • Piyush

    3/20/2018 5:26:27 AM | Reply

    It worked only after removing <br>Terminal=false from Exec in Ubuntu 16.04

    • Donovan

      3/26/2018 7:26:22 PM | Reply

      Thanks for pointing that out. Must have been a copy paste issue that I missed.

    • Yass

      5/4/2018 11:19:37 AM | Reply

      No entendí. ¿Que hay que borrar exactamente?

  • Victor Awakan

    5/6/2018 7:04:41 PM | Reply

    Thanks man. It works.

  • Rodrigo Bittencourt de Lima

    8/5/2018 8:53:49 PM | Reply

    Thanks!

  • Kreezxil

    8/20/2018 1:36:43 PM | Reply

    This works for Ubuntu 18.04 and Java Photon too.

    You will probaby have to change your paths to
    Exec=/home/{username}/eclipse/java-photon/eclipse/eclipse
    Icon=/home/{username}/eclipse/java-photon/eclipse/icon.xpm

    Everything else is the same, no issues, works perfectly.

  • hanieh

    9/8/2018 12:31:58 PM | Reply

    thanks, it works

  • Alex

    10/6/2018 2:58:14 PM | Reply

    Works.  Thanks.  FYI on 18.04 I needed to launch the application and then add it as a favorite to the quick launch bar.  The icon didn't stick when I just dragged and dropped it.

    • maryon

      10/26/2018 7:29:10 AM | Reply

      try searching it by application, then after searching it when you found it on the search list. right click on it and select add to favorites.. works for 18.04 ubuntu

  • maryon

    10/26/2018 7:27:04 AM | Reply

    it works!!! thanks!

  • Alex

    11/14/2018 12:51:19 PM | Reply

    Thanks! Works great on 18.10. No need to restart after adding the .desktop

  • Tirwada

    3/17/2019 12:28:09 PM | Reply

    Thanks bro.
    It worked like a charm on Ubuntu 18.04. I didn't need to reboot.
    Thank you again

  • Sachin

    3/22/2019 12:23:09 PM | Reply

    can not find .local file in home directory tried to copy it from terminal using cmds but getting error like "no such file exist".

    • Tushar

      5/20/2020 10:18:11 AM | Reply

      It is hidden
      So you'll have to uncover it by left click and you'll find see hidden items option !

  • Rbugadev

    5/4/2019 6:58:58 AM | Reply

    Great !!! Thank you very much, it's works  

  • Vikas

    6/6/2019 6:33:42 AM | Reply

    Thanks...It worked.

  • Dragonborn

    8/12/2019 1:44:16 AM | Reply

    thanks man, worked well on my linux mint

  • Jonathan Gossage

    8/26/2019 11:41:36 PM | Reply

    I am very unclear, what do you mean by Eclipse Search? I have no idea what to do here.

  • Parth

    9/20/2019 5:50:52 PM | Reply

    Thanks a lot, forgot that we could create UI desktop services in Debian Laughing

  • Jack Cardozo

    9/29/2019 7:34:38 PM | Reply

    Learnt something new today. Thank you Donovan.

  • StefIsHappyNow

    11/28/2019 1:50:53 PM | Reply

    Thank you very much ! I think it x2 my productivity at work now. Much appreciate

  • SadSack963

    2/10/2020 1:59:25 AM | Reply

    You can easily start the program from the file manager by navigating to "/home/{username}/Programs/eclipse/" (using your example) and double-clicking "eclipse".  

    Then right click on the icon in the taskbar (I'm using Linux Mint - I think Ubunu Unity refers to it as the Launcher), and select "Create shortcut". This will create the .desktop entry in "~/.local/share/applications" which can then be edited as you please. A Menu item should then appear in the "Other" category (not sure about Dash). Once you edit the "Categories=" line it should be under "Programming".

    If you move the .desktop file to "/usr/share/applications/" or "/usr/local/share/applications/" then it will be available globally rather than just for your user account.

    Useful information:
    <specifications.freedesktop.org/.../...-latest.html>

  • HyungKu Im

    4/4/2020 9:18:31 AM | Reply

    Thanks. It works!! i allowed launching and it has shown up!!

  • ravi

    11/30/2020 5:17:05 PM | Reply

    Thank you very much

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