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Eclipse hangs at startup showing only the splash screen

March 27th, 2010 Posted in Uncategorized

Today my Eclipse Galileo hung at start up. After trying some tricks such as eclipse -clean, or eclipse -debug -console, searching for hints in the log files, removing xulrunner from the java.library.path environment, deleting some of the most recent history files and so on I found the solution. In your workspace directory perform the following steps:

  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. :-)
This entry was posted on Saturday, March 27th, 2010 at 1:27 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

5 Responses to “Eclipse hangs at startup showing only the splash screen”

  1. Jim Says:

    March 30th, 2010 at 9:33 pm

    This has indeed solved the same problem that I was having. Can you provide any background on the root cause of the problem?


  2. Olaf Says:

    March 31st, 2010 at 2:16 pm

    No, I lost enough time with that and after that I didn’t feel like digging deep into that issue. All I know from the doc is that this package provides basic support for managing a workspace and its resources. For me it was sufficient to address the symptoms. ;-)


  3. sam Says:

    May 14th, 2010 at 11:18 am

    Thank you very much for sharing this information, you saved me and therefore i shall love you!

    The last time my eclipse was running, was before i tinkered with installing oracle. This left my system in a mess and i had absolutely no clue which of the 1000 things i had to touch during this process was now causing my eclipse to freeze at startup. There was no single hint in the eclipse log files or console. After applying your trick i was amazed, finally seeing it starting again.
    There was one problem, the workspace seemed to be completely empty. However it turned out that only the working sets lost their project associations, the “Window Working Set” still had all projects and so far everything appears to be back in good order and condition.

    Once again thank you, and may this little secret save many more desperate eclipters in their darkest hours ;-]


  4. John Leo Says:

    June 16th, 2010 at 4:56 am

    Thanks for saving me boatloads of time. Great solution. I’m sure it won’t be the only time I have to use it.


  5. Trent Says:

    July 27th, 2010 at 2:25 am

    Thanks for posting your fix. It just happened to me :)


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