install jdk via Synaptic package manager, the name of it is sun-java6-jdk
download the eclipse install file for Linux
1.Extract the eclipse download and move to opt.
tar xzf wtp-all-in-one-sdk-1.0-linux-gtk.tar.gz
sudo mv eclipse /opt/eclipse
cd /opt
sudo chmod -R +r eclipse
sudo chmod +x `sudo find eclipse -type d`
2. Then create an eclipse executable in your path
sudo touch /usr/bin/eclipse
sudo chmod 755 /usr/bin/eclipse
sudo vi /usr/bin/eclipse
With this contents
#!/bin/sh
export ECLIPSE_HOME="/opt/eclipse"
export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1
$ECLIPSE_HOME/eclipse $*
3 Then create a gnome menu item
sudo vi /usr/share/applications/eclipse.desktop
With this contents
[Desktop Entry]
Encoding=UTF-8
Name=Eclipse
Comment=Eclipse IDE
Exec=eclipse
Icon=/opt/eclipse/icon.xpm
Terminal=false
Type=Application
Categories=GNOME;Application;Development;
StartupNotify=true
4 You now have a working eclipse. But run this command first to initialize the set up
. /opt/eclipse/eclipse -clean
Then from here on you can run from the menu item applications/programming/eclipse