Eclipse only sees JDK with sudo

Question

I have to start by saying that I have just switched to Ubuntu from Windows and I am new to Linux in general. Coming from Windows, I really am not familiar with how exactly the permissions work, the Linux file system, where I am able to create folders that I can use without the sudo command etc.

I use eclipse on a daily basis for android development and other simple java swing projects. I was able to download and extract the latest available version of eclipse (kepler) to this path: /opt/eclipse . Inside this directory is the eclipse executable and other eclipse related files.

I also installed the JDK and verified with the java -version command. It says:

java version "1.7.0_25"
Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment (build 1.7.0_25-b15)
Java HotSpot(TM) 64-Bit Server VM (build 23.25-b01, mixed mode)

I am running on a 64 bit CPU architecture so both programs are the 64 bit version.

Now, my problem is that if I open eclipse from the Unity dash or from the file explorer, it give me this error:

However if I run sudo eclipse in the terminal, everything runs just fine as long as I do it as the super user. I have a hunch that the JDK is installed in a folder that is restricted to normal users and only works if I run the sudo command but this is just a hunch. As I said, I am new to Linux and I am not really sure what I am doing wrong here, I am learning as I go. I need a good explanation as to how to make it start from the Unity dock without the sudo command. Thanks in advance!

Answer 1

You'll want to use the chmod command from the terminal to change the permissions on the Java folder. See this link for more information: http://www.linux.org/threads/file-permissions-chmod.4094/

Answer 2

Well after running the which java cmd, I noticed that the path to the JDK from the eclipse.ini file was not pointing to the correct location. I fixed the path and now it works. I don't know how the sudo cmd overrides the eclipse.ini path to JDK but well, it works