Cannot create Maven Project in eclipse

Solution 1:

Same problem here, solved.

I will explain the problem and the solution, to help others.

My software is:

Windows 7
Eclipse 4.4.1 (Luna SR1)
m2e 1.5.0.20140606-0033
    (from eclipse repository: http://download.eclipse.org/releases/luna)

And I'm accessing internet through a proxy.

My problem was the same:

• Just installed m2e, went to menu: File > New > Other > Maven > Maven project > Next > Next.
• Selected "Catalog: All catalogs" and "Filter: maven-archetype-quickstart", then clicked on the search result, then on button Next.
• Then entered "Group Id: test_gr" and "Artifact Id: test_art", then clicked on Finish button.
• Got the "Could not resolve archetype..." error.

After a lot of try-and-error, and reading a lot of pages, I've finally found a solution to fix it. Some important points of the solution:

• It uses the default (embedded) Maven installation (3.2.1/1.5.0.20140605-2032) that comes with m2e.
• So no aditional (external) Maven installation is required.
• No special m2e config is required.

The solution is:

• Open eclipse.
• Restore m2e original preferences (if you changed any of them): Click on menu: Window > Preferences > Maven > Restore defaults. Do the same for all tree items under "Maven" item: Archetypes, Discovery, Errors/Warnings, Instalation, Lifecycle Mappings, Templates, User Interface, User Settings. Click on "OK" button.
• Copy (for example to a notepad window) the path of the user settings file. To see the path, click again on menu: Window > Preferences > Maven > User Settings, and the path is at the "User settings" textbox. You will have to write the path manually, since it is not posible to copy-and-paste. After coping the path to the notepad, don't close the Preferences window.
• At the Preferences window that is already open, click on the "open file" link. Close the Preferences window, and you will see the "settings.xml" file already openned in a Eclipse editor.
• The editor will have 2 tabs at the bottom: "Design" and "Source". Click on "Source" tab. You will see all the source code (xml).
• Delete all the source code: Click on the code, press control+a, press "del".
• Copy the following code to the editor (and customize the uppercased values):

<settings>
  <proxies>
   <proxy>
      <active>true</active>
      <protocol>http</protocol>
      <host>YOUR.PROXY.IP.OR.NAME</host>
      <port>YOUR PROXY PORT</port>
      <username>YOUR PROXY USERNAME (OR EMPTY IF NOT REQUIRED)</username>
      <password>YOUR PROXY PASSWORD (OR EMPTY IF NOT REQUIRED)</password>
      <nonProxyHosts>YOUR PROXY EXCLUSION HOST LIST (OR EMPTY)</nonProxyHosts>
    </proxy>
  </proxies>
</settings>

• Save the file: control+s.
• Exit Eclipse: Menu File > Exit.
• Open in a Windows Explorer the path you copied (without the filename, just the path of directories).
• You will probaly see the xml file ("settings.xml") and a directoy ("repository"). Remove the directoy ("repository"): Right click > Delete > Yes.
• Start Eclipse.
• Now you will be able to create a maven project: File > New > Other > Maven > Maven project > Next > Next, select "Catalog: All catalogs" and "Filter: maven-archetype-quickstart", click on the search result, then on button Next, enter "Group Id: test_gr" and "Artifact Id: test_art", click on Finish button.

Finally, I would like to give a suggestion to m2e developers, to make config easier. After installing m2e from the internet (from a repository), m2e should check if Eclipse is using a proxy (Preferences > General > Network Connections). If Eclipse is using a proxy, the m2e should show a dialog to the user:

m2e has detected that Eclipse is using a proxy to access to the internet.
Would you like me to create a User settings file (settings.xml) for the embedded 
Maven software?

[ Yes ] [ No ]

If the user clicks on Yes, then m2e should create automatically the "settings.xml" file by copying proxy values from Eclipse preferences.

Solution 2:

For me the solution was a bit simpler, I just had to clean the repository : .m2/repository/org/apache/maven/archetypes