Run Eclipse in WSL2

config.xlaunch

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<XLaunch WindowMode="MultiWindow" ClientMode="NoClient" LocalClient="False" Display="0" LocalProgram="xcalc" RemoteProgram="xterm" RemotePassword="" PrivateKey="" RemoteHost="" RemoteUser="" XDMCPHost="" XDMCPBroadcast="False" XDMCPIndirect="False" Clipboard="True" ClipboardPrimary="True" ExtraParams="" Wgl="True" DisableAC="True" XDMCPTerminate="False"/>

EclipseOnWSL2Ubuntu.md

This gist provides a summary on how to accomplish the following tasks:

• Access WSL2 using putty
• Run Eclipse on WSL2 Ubuntu, displaying the Eclipse UI on VcXsrv running on Windows
  • Connecting to VcXsrv directly from WSL2
  • Using SSH X11 forwarding, with network connection initiated from Windows to WSL2 Ubuntu, which is particularly useful on company laptops that refuse all incoming network connections on Windows.

0. Prerequisites:

   • WSL2 up and running
   • Putty, Plink & PuttyGen installed on Windows

1. WSL2 Ubuntu: Install & configure OpenSSH

   • sudo apt install openssh-server

   • Edit /etc/ssh/sshd_config:

       X11Forwarding yes
       X11DisplayOffset 10
       X11UseLocalhost no
     

   • sudo ssh-keygen -A

   • sudo service ssh start

2. Auto-start SSH daemon:

   • WSL2 Ubuntu: mkdir -p ~/bin ; echo "sudo service ssh start" >> ~/bin/startup.sh
   • Windows: Create scheduled task that runs on user logon, running C:\Windows\System32\bash.exe with arguments /home/<user>/bin/startup.sh

3. Windows: Configure SSH public key authentication using PuttyGen:

   • See https://www.puttygen.com/#How_to_use_PuTTYgen for general instructions
   • Run PuttyGen
   • Generate new key pair, or convert existing key pair
   • Save private key to ppk file; this will used later when connecting to WSL2 Ubuntu using Putty or PLink
   • Add the SSH public key to ~/.ssh/authorized_keys on WSL2 Ubuntu

4. Windows: Create putty profile to connect to WSL2 Ubuntu:

   • Session
     • Host Name: localhost
     • Port: 22 (or whatever OpenSSH port you configured on WSL2 Ubuntu)
   • Connection -> Data:
     • Auto-login username: <your user name>
   • Connection -> SSH -> Auth:
     • Private key file for authentication: <key file generated by PuttyGen in step #2>
   • Connection -> SSH -> X11:
     • Enable X11 forwarding (if you want to start X11 programs)
     • X display location: 127.0.0.1:0.0 (this should match whatever DISPLAY value is shown in VcXsrv logs)

5. Windows: Install & configure VcXsrv:

   • Download & install https://sourceforge.net/projects/vcxsrv/
   • Copy config.xlaunch as shown below to the Startup folder (Win+R: shell:startup)
   • Launch config.xlaunch to start the X Server manually for now

6. WSL2 Ubuntu: Install Eclipse & prerequisites:

   • sudo apt-get install openjdk-11-jdk
   • sudo apt-get install libgtk-3-0
   • Download and unpack Eclipse for Linux to ~/eclipse

7. Windows: Eclipse shortcut using SSH X11 tunnel:

   • Manually try starting Eclipse from Windows by running the following command:
     plink.exe -batch -X -i <path to .ppk from step #2> <Ubuntu username>@localhost ~/eclipse/eclipse
   • Copy silent.vbs and plink-silent.cmd (see attached files) to the directory where PLink.exe is installed
   • Create a new shortcut that runs the following command:
     C:\Windows\System32\cmd.exe /c "C:\<path to plink>\plink-silent.cmd -batch -X -i <path to .ppk from step #2> <Ubuntu username>@localhost ~/eclipse/eclipse"
   • Double-click the shortcut; if all is well you should see the Eclipse UI after a couple of seconds

8. Windows: Eclipse shortcut using direct XServer connection:

   • Add the following lines to ~/.profile on WSL2 Ubuntu (create file if it doesn't yet exist):

     export DISPLAY=$(awk '/nameserver / {print $2; exit}' /etc/resolv.conf 2>/dev/null):0
     export LIBGL_ALWAYS_INDIRECT=1
     

     Note that having these lines in .bashrc won't work as .bashrc is only loaded for interactive shells
   • Create a new shortcut that runs the following command:
     C:\Windows\System32\wsl.exe -u <WSL2 user> -- bash -lc 'nohup ~/eclipse/eclipse' ^& sleep 1

plink-silent.cmd

cd "%~dp0"
wscript silent.vbs "plink.exe -batch %*"

silent.vbs

CreateObject("Wscript.Shell").Run "" & WScript.Arguments(0) & "", 0, False

Just wanted to share my experience as I thought it would help others.

I managed to install and run Eclipse using WSL without any other software (Putty, Plink & PuttyGen included).

First of all, I followed instructions on this Windows tutorial up to the "Update the packages in your distribution" section. Once you're done with checking prerequisites and updating packages of your distro, you can proceed to install the Eclipse Installer directly from your WSL Bash. Here are the steps to reproduce :

1. Go to the Eclipse Installer page.

2. Click on Linux x86_64 in the "Try the Eclipse Installer" section.

3. Navigate to "Other download options", hover "Direct link to file", right click, select "Copy link".

4. In your WSL terminal, run wget <copied-link>. You don't need to use the -O flag as we want to keep the original filename.

5. (Recommended security steps up to step 8) Run the previous command again with some extras changes :

   • Change the download.php in the copied link by sums.php.
   • Add the text &type=md5 at the very end of the copied URL.
   • Add the -O eclipse-installer.md5 after the wget command.
   • Your command should look like this : wget -O eclipse-installer.md5 https://[...]sums.php?file=[...].tar.gz&r=1&type=md5

6. Make sure you have files <eclipse-installer>.tar.gz and eclipse-installer.md5, then run md5sum -c eclipse-installer.md5.

7. If the output says somehting like below, go to the next step. If not, try to download the tar.gz file again.
   eclipse-java-2023-12-R-linux-gtk-x86_64.tar.gz: OK

8. Extract the downloaded archive with tar xvfz <eclipse-installer>.tar.gz.

9. Run cd eclipse/eclispe-installer/, then ./eclipse-inst. A window should open, inviting you to install the software of your choice. DO NOT CLOSE/REDUCE the window during installation as it may crash if you do so. Keep the installation window open with focus on. When done, you can cd to the chosen installation path and run ./eclipse.

Happy coding !

Thanks @isaac-gros Worked for me, but I had to also do: sudo apt install libswt-gtk-4-java

Thanks all for the various suggestions. I'm using a similar approach as @isaac-gros described, however with the standard WSLg-based approach, I encountered an annoying issue; Eclipse would disappear after sleep/resume or on network change (for example switching between LAN & WIFI). Sometimes the existing Eclipse window would re-appear when starting another instance, but other times the window wouldn't re-appear and I had to kill the existing Eclipse process to be able to start a new instance on the same workspace.

I'm now using https://github.com/nbdd0121/wsld in combination with VcXsrv, which fixes this problem for me (I couldn't figure out how to get wsld to work with the native WSLg X11 server; see nbdd0121/wsld#34)

@asmolcic 's suggestion did the trick for me.

sudo snap install --classic eclipse &&
sudo apt-get update &&
sudo apt-get install libswt-gtk-4-java &&
eclipse

There's a another way that I found works for me via WSL, following https://github.com/a-langer/eclipse-oomph-console from the thread https://stackoverflow.com/questions/35282460/install-eclipse-via-terminal:

0. Follow the steps on https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/wsl/tutorials/gui-apps up until step "Update the packages in your distribution" via @isaac-gros

1. Download the tar from console oomph installer :

wget -O installer.tar.gz  https://search.maven.org/remotecontent?filepath=com/github/a-langer/org.eclipse.oomph.console.product/1.0.1/org.eclipse.oomph.console.product-1.0.1-linux.gtk.x86_64.tar.gz

2. Extract it:

tar -xvzf installer.tar.gz

3. Go into new directory:

cd eclipse-installer

4. Run the installer (it might hang at 74%, just wait):

./eclipse-inst

5. Follow the steps on the installer that pops up:

• Eclipse IDE for Java Developers
• Installation folder --> Change to home, not root! It will make things easier imo
• Click install

6. Cd into where you set your installation to be
7. Cd into /ide/eclipse (you may not have an ide folder)
8. You can now run eclipse from terminal:

./eclipse

seeking help for this issue https://stackoverflow.com/questions/75946722/eclipse-in-wsl2-context-menus-not-scrollable