Install Eclipse SDK 3.6.1 (Helios) on Fedora 14/13, CentOS/RHEL 5.5/6

This is guide, howto install latest Eclipse SDK 3.6.1 (Helios) on Fedora, CentOS and Red Hat (RHEL). This guide should work with Fedora 14, Fedora 13, Fedora 12, CentOS 5.5, Red Hat (RHEL) 5.5, Red Hat (RHEL) 6. And even with earlier versions.
Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment (IDE) and an extensible plug-in system. It is written primarily in Java and can be used to develop applications in Java and, by means of various plug-ins, other languages including C, C++, COBOL, Python, Perl, PHP, Scala and Ruby (including Ruby on Rails framework).

Install Eclipse SDK 3.6.1 (Helios) on Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat (RHEL)

1. Install Sun/Oracle Java JDK 6 on Fedora, CentOS, Red Hat (RHEL)

2. Download Eclipse SDK 3.6.1 (Helios)

Download suitable version from www.eclipse.org/downloads. This guide uses Eclipse Classic 3.6.1 version. Another popular versions are Eclipse IDE for Java EE Developers, Eclipse IDE for Java Developers and Eclipse for PHP Developers. Select also 32-bit or 64-bit version depending on your system.

3. Change root user

su -
## OR ##
sudo -i

4. Extract Eclipse package (example to /opt directory)

tar -xvzf eclipse-SDK-3.6.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz -C /opt

5. Add read permissions to all files

chmod -R +r /opt/eclipse

6. Create Eclipse executable on /usr/bin path

touch /usr/bin/eclipse
chmod 755 /usr/bin/eclipse
 
## Open eclipse file with your favourite editor ##
nano -w /usr/bin/eclipse
 
## Paste following content to file ##
#!/bin/sh
export ECLIPSE_HOME="/opt/eclipse"
 
$ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse $*

7. Create Gnome desktop launcher

## Create following file, with our favourite editor ##
/usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
 
## Add following content to file and save ##
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse SDK 3.6.1
Exec=eclipse
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Application;Development;
StartupNotify=true

8. Start Eclipse 3.6.1

From command line use eclipse command

eclipse

From Desktop menu

9. Eclipse 3.6 screenshots, running (and starting) on Fedora 13 32-bit and CentOS 5.5 64-bit

Eclipse loading

Eclipse 3.6 running on Fedora 13 32-bit

Eclipse 3.6 running on CentOS 5.5 64-bit

Troubleshooting

If you get something like following errors:

Failed to load the JNI shared library /usr/java/jdk1.6.0_21/jre/bin/../lib/i386/client/libjvm.so
Or
/usr/java/jdk1.6.0_21/jre/bin/../lib/i386/client/libjvm.so: cannot enable executable stack as shared object requires: Permission denied
Then do following:

chcon -t execmem_exec_t '/opt/eclipse/eclipse'

and try again.