my random thoughts

UPDATE 2010 May 23: For Ubuntu 10.04 (Lucid), it is no longer required to download and install the individual 32bit libraries.  Just follow step number 2 and 9-12.

I decided to upgrade my version of Eclipse to the latest, 3.4.  I have a 32bit laptop and a 64 bit desktop.  I hate having to maintain two copies of Eclipse so I maintain one 32bit version of Eclipse on my jump drive.  Obviously, this poses some problems with my 64bit desktop.  There a ways to get a 32bit version of Eclipse fully functional on a 64bit OS.  With 3.3, I had no problems doing this.  But with 3.4, I ran into some new issues.  Specifically with getting the Aptana plugin to work properly.  Nothing in the aptana perspective would display and it would crash with errors relating to it not finding a suitable xulrunner.

 This is how I ended up doing it.  I used parts of the how to found here on the Ubuntu forums posted by linuxed.

1)  I downloaded the following packages: 

Eclipse
libnss3-1d 32-bit
xulrunner-1.8 32-bit
libnspr4-0d 32-bit
libstartup-notification0 32-bit
libhunspell-1.1-0 32-bit

2)  Install the following via apt

sudo apt-get install ia32-libs ia32-sun-java6-bin

 3) Create a temporary folder lib32

mkdir lib32

 4) Extract the above packages, then extract data.tar.gz in each of the library packages.  

5) Copy the following files from the corresponding packages' data.tar.gz to the lib32 folder you created

libnss3-1d: usr/lib:

• libnss3.so.1d
• libnssutil3.so.1d
• libsmime3.so.1d
• libssl3.so.1d

libnss3-1d: usr/lib/nss:

• libfreebl3.so
• libnssckbi.so
• libnssdbm3.so
• libsoftokn3.so

Copy all the files in usr/lib for  libnspr4-0d, libstartup-notificaton0 and libhunspell-1.1-0

6) Place the entire xulrunner folder in the lib32 folder

7) Place the entire eclipse directory wherever you want to run it from.  For me, it was my jump drive.  For you it may be /opt, /usr/lib32, or whatever.

8)  Copy the entire lib32 directory to /usr/lib32

sudo cp -R lib32/* /usr/lib32/

 9) Create the following file:

sudo gedit /usr/bin/eclipse

 10) Place the following into the file and save it

export PATH=/direct/path/to/eclipse/installation/:/usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-6-sun/bin:/usr/lib32/:$PATH
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-6-sun/
export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib32/xulrunner/ cd /direct/path/to/eclipse/installation/
./eclipse $*

11) Make it executable

sudo chmod +x /usr/bin/eclipse

 12) Run eclipse from either the application launcher or a terminal

To get Aptana installed and working, do the following

1) Open Eclipse and intall the SDK.  Click Help->Software Updates.  click on the Available Software tab and type in"eclipse sdk." Click on "Eclipse SDK" and then install.

2) Once installed, restart eclipse.  Then go to Window -> Preferences -> General -> Capabilities  and check "Classic Update"

3) Go to Help -> Software Updates -> Find and Install. Select " Search for new features to install" and click next.  Click "New Remote Site" and add "http://update.aptana.com/update/studio/3.2/site.xml"

4) Click Ok then Finish.  Install Aptana.

5) Restart and you should be good to go!

Comment below if you have any questions or run into roadblocks.