Locking is not possible in the directory C:\eclipse\configuration\org.eclipse.osgi

Question

I used to have Eclipse 3.5.2 working from my Limited User Account (i.e. not Administrator).

But when I upgraded to 3.6.2, Eclipse refuses to run in the Limited User

Answer 1

On Windows, the same error message occurred for me because I turned UAC back on after 2 years of having it off. I just deleted the . lock file eclipse complained about.. and pressed Continue when the UAC popup came.. and then re-opened eclipse.. all was well.

Answer 2

I had a similar problem running on a server WITH an admin id.

Lowering UAC and rebooting the server fixed it.

Answer 3

This has to do with running Eclipse in a multi-user environment, first read this Eclipse help section on multi user installations. When Eclipse was installed, it was done so as an admin account. This meant that the configuration folder was accessible and Eclipse thought this was a shared configuration or private install. Because of this Eclipse will first try to write data to the configuration catalog, but will fail for normal users.

What you want to do is to make Eclipse realize that you have a shared install installation and that all configuration data should be in the users home directory.

See this similar question and this IBM support answer for more information.

Answer 4

I had this problem when trying to create a workspace in a mapped network drive.

One option is to start Eclipse from terminal with ./eclipse -vmargs -Dosgi.locking=none.

Another option is to add osgi.locking=none to the config.ini file in Eclilpse's configuration folder.

The second option is more convenient, but has the side effect of allowing any number of Eclipse instances running the same workspace.

Answer 5

I had the same problem with the Juno version.

Several years ago I made a multiuser environment that worked perfectly, but the things changed with time. Now, my obvious solution, to change permissions, didn't work at all.

The issue is that the lock files have special permissions that the 777 won't change. Also, it is not the best solution just to provide the 777 to a directory inside any UNIX system (Linux, AIX, etc.); then, I worked around to another solution.

Inside the Eclipse directory you can find a eclipse.ini file. There you can put the vm arguments, although the one suggested by Eclipse won't work.

My environment started working with this one:

-Dosgi.configuration.area=@user.home/.eclipse

This way, each user inside the environment that run the Eclipse program, will create a different .eclipse directory inside the particular home, with full rights and zero problems.

I expect this to be useful for everyone "in the UNIX side".

Answer 6

Who has write access to the directory: C:\eclipse & C:\eclipse\configuration ?

AFAIK eclipse decides, on startup, whether to use the central installation as the configuration location, or a user accessible directory based on whether the eclipse (or possibly the configuration) directory are writable.