Install and Use Eclipse IDE on Windows WSL

Introduction

Eclipse IDE is one of the most popular Java IDE(s) hated and loved by the community.

Although nowadays feels a bit out of date, still is a good IDE for Java developers that do not want to go into Jetbrains IDEs (IntelliJ IDEA).

Installation

If you intend to install eclipse using nix, note that an error occurs when launching a project which remains unresolved. Only proceed if you’d like to fix this.

How To

Install Java First

sudo apt update
sudo apt install default-jdk

Download eclipse

Go to Index of /eclipse/technology/epp/downloads/release/ and find the eclipse distribution you’d like to download.

For example, for eclipse-rcp 2025–09:

wget https://mirror.umd.edu/eclipse/technology/epp/downloads/release/2025-09/R/eclipse-rcp-2025-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz --output-document eclipse-rcp-2025-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz

Uncompressed file to .local/share/eclipse

tar -xvzf eclipse-rcp-2025-09-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz
mkdir -p ~/.local/share/eclipse
mv eclipse ~/.local/share/eclipse/rcp-2025-09

Add it to your PATH environment variable

• bash & zsh

PATH="~/.local/share/eclipse/rcp-2025-09:$PATH"

• fish

fish_add_path ~/.local/share/eclipse/rcp-2025-09

Launch Eclipse

Launching Eclipse on WSL is not as easy as doing it on Native Windows.

nohup sh -c eclipse >/dev/null 2>&1 & disown

Create an alias

• bash & zsh

alias eclipse-app=`nohup sh -c "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1 & disown`

• fish

Create eclipse-app function

touch ~/.config/fish/functions/eclipse-app.fish

Add the following

function eclipse-app --description "Eclipse IDE"
  nohup sh -c "$cmd" >/dev/null 2>&1 & disown
end

Troubleshooting

Eclipse GUI inside WSL can be buggy. For example, the windows can get stuck and there’s no way of killing it.

In order to do that find the parent java process and kill it.