Eclipse freezing at startup - before loading works

Question

First thing on a morning, just after I switch on my PC (Windows XP) and start my Eclipse it simply shows the splash screen and then freezes. After about 20 minutes it will then ask me which workspace to load.

The problem was happening with 3.5 and 3.6 Eclipse. With the 3.6 Eclipse installation I only have the standard PDE install + Google plugin (for GWT development) + Subclipse.

Because I have it configured to ask me for the workspace I can see its not workspace or project related.

I suspect the Google plugin as I have not had any problems before installing this but I have searched and have not come across anybody reporting similar problems.

It only does this once - straight after I switch my machine on in the morning. After this it starts fine - typically in a few seconds.

What is it likely to be doing? How can I find out what it is doing?

Answer 1

One can launch the DevMode JVM with an explicit tempdir specification. We use Ant to launch DevMode, and I have the following JVM arg specified:

One should be able to use the same "-D" arg if launching via the Google Eclipse plugin as well.

The tempdir we use is cleaned regularly as part of our build process, so junk file accumulation is controlled.

Answer 2

The link @CharlesB posted led me in the right direction, but I found that you only need to delete the .snap file located here:

[Workspace Directory]/.metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.core.resources/.snap

(Note the .metadata directory is hidden.)

Answer 3

I have installed Eclipse through direct download as well as Software Centre but on ubuntu 12.04 LTS they both seem to hang on splash screen unless the ~/workspace directory is deleted.

I found that by clicking on the splash screen and then pressing Enter it launches perfectly fine even without removing the ~/workspace directory!!

Answer 4

For me deleting .snap files and renaming and restoring of org.eclipse.core.resources did not help. I had to delete .history directory inside org.eclipse.core.resources folder. After this I was able to start my eclipse.

Answer 5

Found my problem. The Google GWT plugin does not clean up after itself and leaves lots of files in the Temp folder (C:\Documents and Settings{username}\Local Settings\Temp on XP). I had over 100000 files and several thousand folders in here - with over 99% of them due to the Google GWT plugin. I removed these and now Eclipse starts in a few seconds instead of 20 minutes. Plus my whole machine is generally running more smoothly.

Answer 6

I also had similar problem. Eclipse (Luna) started normally with splash screen, then opened main window and immediately freeze. For me running eclipse with

eclipse.exe -clean -refresh

fixed the problem.