eclipse + force.com ide plugin launch freeze problem

Question

Some of us have been upgrading eclipse to juno, which is giving a lot of problems starting up. Specially after also upgrading the force plugin to winter13/api26 Sometimes it will load and launch (and then I try to not reboot for as long as I can), but 90% of the time eclipse will freeze while loading. This typically happens when "Loading com.salesforce.ide.core" is the displayed status above the load-bar.

My eclipse ini file:

-startup
 plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.3.0.v20120522-1813.jar
--launcher.library
 plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.win32.win32.x86_64_1.1.200.v20120522-1813
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.java.product
-product
org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256M
-showsplash
org.eclipse.platform
--launcher.XXMaxPermSize
256m
--launcher.defaultAction
openFile
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Dhelp.lucene.tokenizer=standard
-Xms40m
-Xmx1024m

I have some increased values based on posts I found trying to find a solution, to little avail. Other members of my team, having defaul ini files, also have problems launching eclipse.

Deleting the .lock file from the workspace folder as suggested on some websites, does not help.

In the meantime I've installed the standalone force.com IDE application which runs fine, but I'd like to return to using eclipse. How do I maintain eclipse & the force.com ide plugin working well together, while doing upgrades of both when they are available?

Answer 1

According to the documentation on Force.com IDE Supported Platforms, Juno isn't supported at this time.

Answer 2

So I've had this problem for quite a while now with Juno. I was getting errors in my log (workspace.metadata.log) something similar to this:

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.net 1 0 2013-03-01 10:32:12.646
!MESSAGE System property https.proxyHost is not set but should be xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.net 1 0 2013-03-01 10:32:12.646
!MESSAGE System property https.proxyPort is not set but should be xxxx.

I couldn't get Eclispe to load via any additional command line arguments for proxy etc, so I ended up doing the following which seems to work:

1. Rename com.salesforce.ide.ui_26.0.0.201210261118.jar to com.salesforce.ide.ui_26.0.0.201210261118.jar.bak or something similar to stop it loading (eclipse\plugins folder)

2. Start Eclipse, it should error, and anything you had opened before closing eclipse should have some sort of error relating to the editor.

3. Select a perspective that isn't the Force.com perspective

4. Close Eclipse

5. Rename the above file back to the original name

6. Start Eclispe again

7. Change back to force.com perspective.

In otherwords, I think the issue was something to do with the force.com Perspective trying to load something over the proxy, which wasn't working. Not really sure who to log the fault with either, but at least this work around works.

EDIT: To be safe, if you ever have to close Eclipse, it's probably best to select a different perspective before you quit. That way you can reselect the Force.com perspective when you open it again.

Answer 3

I have fixed this by going to Window -> Preferences -> General -> Startup and Shutdown and unchecked all Force Com IDE check boxes.