Eclipse hangs on loading workbench

Solution 1:

DISCLAIMER: THIS WILL DELETE ALL OF YOUR ECLIPSE WORKSPACE SETTINGS AND YOU WILL HAVE TO RE-IMPORT ALL YOUR PROJECTS, THERE ARE LESS DESTRUCTIVE ANSWERS HERE

Try the following:

1. Delete the .metadata folder in your local workspace (this is what worked for me). It seems that it contains a .LOCK file that if not properly closed, prevents eclipse from starting properly. On Unix based systems you can type following on command line;

   rm -r workspace/.metadata
   

2. Delete your .eclipse directory in your home directory. Launch eclipse. If that doesn't work,

3. Open eclipse under another user account. If it loads, you know the problem is with your account, not your eclipse installation.

Solution 2:

The procedure shown at http://off-topic.biz/en/eclipse-hangs-at-startup-showing-only-the-splash-screen/ worked for me:

1. cd .metadata/.plugins
2. mv org.eclipse.core.resources org.eclipse.core.resources.bak
3. Start eclipse. (It should show an error message or an empty workspace because no project is found.)
4. Close all open editors tabs.
5. Exit eclipse.
6. rm -rf org.eclipse.core.resources (Delete the newly created directory.)
7. mv org.eclipse.core.resources.bak/ org.eclipse.core.resources (Restore the original directory.)
8. Start eclipse and start working. :-)

In other answers:

eclipse -clean -clearPersistedState

is mentioned - which seems to have the same or even better effect.

Here is a script for MacOS (using Macports) and Linux (tested on Ubuntu with Eclipse Equinox) to do the start with an an optional kill of the running eclipse. You might want to adapt the script to your needs. If you add new platforms please edit the script right in this answer.

#!/bin/bash
# WF 2014-03-14
#
# ceclipse:
#   start Eclipse cleanly
#
#   this script calls eclipse with -clean and -clearPersistedState
#   if an instance of eclipse is already running the user is asked
#   if it should be killed first and if answered yes the process will be killed
#
# usage: ceclipse
#

#
# error
#
#   show an error message and exit
#
#   params:
#     1: l_msg - the message to display
error() {
  local l_msg="$1"
  echo "error: $l_msg" 1>&2
  exit 1 
}

#
# autoinstall
#
#  check that l_prog is available by calling which
#  if not available install from given package depending on Operating system
#
#  params: 
#    1: l_prog: The program that shall be checked
#    2: l_linuxpackage: The apt-package to install from
#    3: l_macospackage: The MacPorts package to install from
#
autoinstall() {
  local l_prog=$1
  local l_linuxpackage=$2
  local l_macospackage=$3
  echo "checking that $l_prog  is installed on os $os ..."
  which $l_prog 
  if [ $? -eq 1 ]
  then
    case $os in 
      # Mac OS
      Darwin) 
        echo "installing $l_prog from MacPorts package $l_macospackage"        
        sudo port install $l_macospackage
      ;;
      # e.g. Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian/Suse
      Linux)
        echo "installing $l_prog from apt-package $l_linuxpackage"        
        sudo apt-get install $l_linuxpackage
      ;;
      # git bash (Windows)
      MINGW32_NT-6.1)
        error "$l_prog ist not installed"
      ;;
      *)
        error "unknown operating system $os" 
    esac
  fi
}

# global operating system variable
os=`uname`

# first set 
#  eclipse_proc - the name of the eclipse process to look for
#  eclipse_app - the name of the eclipse application to start
case $os in 
    # Mac OS
    Darwin) 
      eclipse_proc="Eclipse.app" 
      eclipse_app="/Applications/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse"
      ;;
    # e.g. Ubuntu/Fedora/Debian/Suse
    Linux)
      eclipse_proc="/usr/lib/eclipse//plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.2.0.dist.jar"
      eclipse_app=`which eclipse`
      ;;
    # git bash (Windows)
    MINGW32_NT-6.1)
      eclipse_app=`which eclipse`
      error "$os not implemented yet"
      ;;
    *)
      error "unknown operating system $os" 
esac

# check that pgrep is installed or install it
autoinstall pgrep procps

# check whether eclipse process is running
# first check that we only find one process
echo "looking for $eclipse_proc process"
pgrep -fl "$eclipse_proc"
# can't use -c option on MacOS - use platform independent approach 
#eclipse_count=`pgrep -cfl "$eclipse_proc"`
eclipse_count=`pgrep -fl "$eclipse_proc" | wc -l | tr -d ' '`

# check how many processes matched
case $eclipse_count in
  # no eclipse - do nothing
  0) ;;
  # exactly one - offer to kill it
  1) 
     echo "Eclipse is running - shall i kill and restart it with -clean? y/n?"
       read answer
       case $answer in
         y|Y) ;;
           *) error "aborted ..." ;;
       esac
     echo "killing current $eclipse_proc"
     pkill -f "$eclipse_proc"
     ;;
  # multiple - this is bogus
  *) error "$eclipse_count processes matching $eclipse_proc found - please adapt $0";;
esac

tmp=/tmp/eclipse$$
echo "starting eclipse cleanly ... using $tmp for nohup.out"
mkdir -p $tmp
cd $tmp

# start eclipse with clean options
nohup $eclipse_app -clean -clearPersistedState&

Solution 3:

./eclipse -clean -refresh

as mentioned in comment by sulai Dec 20 '12 at 12:46, that worked for me.

However, on the Mac OS X, I had to figure out how to get to ./eclipse

Here's the solution:

cd Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/

Thank you Andrew's comment for this post: https://stackoverflow.com/a/1783448/2162226

Solution 4:

The best solution I found is to delete this file: workspace/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.e4.workbench/workbench