Eclipse Check for Updates issue

I install Eclipse from the Software Center so it links up and will be updated with the rest of my software. Because I am developing for Android, however, I have to install the ADT Plugin within Eclipse by going to Help > Install new software (or something to that effect). Now, I do understand that I can update Eclipse through the actual Ubuntu software center/system, but in order to update plugins and extensions within Eclipse, I have to go to Help > Check for Updates (which then scans all plugins for updates). The only issue, is that when I installed through the software center, the owner became root, and whenever I run it without root, I'm not able to update - I get the error message "Insufficient access privileges to apply this update." When I run it as root, all of my plugins disappear, because I guess I installed them as myself, not as root. I tried to install the plugins as root, but the Install New Software choice would not work.

Ubuntu 12.04 and Eclipse 3.7.2-1

The best solution is to become root using su or by logging in as the root user from the start, if you have that ability (Ubuntu users don't, unless they fixed that defect). Anyhow, once you are root, do a chown -R user:group to the path for your eclipse installation.

Then your regular user should be able to install plugins. In the future, do not install eclipse as the root user. Root can still use eclipse when another user installs it and owns it.

Finally fixed the issue by completely uninstalling Eclipse using Synaptic, and then reinstalling. Once reinstalled, I opened it up as root to update the platform and other upgrade-able software. I then closed it and opened it up as a normal user to install the ADT Plugin. This way, the plugin shows during normal sessions, and can be updated in normal sessions, and if I want to update another component of the Eclipse system, I can launch it as root.

To add up on @Garry's answer, what I did is create a "dev" group, add my user to it, and chgrp -R dev <eclipse dir>. You might want to chmod -R g+w <eclipse dir> as well to make sure you can write to it.