Eclipse fails to start

Question

When I try to start Eclipse Juno on Windows 7 a messagebox saying "An error occured. See the log file" appears and eclipse won't start. I tried either renaming my workspace folder or change eclipse workspace settings stored in eclipse_root_folder\configuration.settings\org.eclipse.core.net.prefs but it doesn't work. I have been using this for 2 months and this didn't happen before. Any solution?

!SESSION 2013-03-11 15:17:16.709 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=M20120914-1800
java.version=1.6.0_25
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=win32, ARCH=x86_64, WS=win32, NL=en_US
Framework arguments:  -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product
Command-line arguments:  -os win32 -ws win32 -arch x86_64 -product org.eclipse.epp.package.jee.product

!ENTRY org.eclipse.osgi 4 0 2013-03-11 15:17:20.919
!MESSAGE Application error
!STACK 1
java.lang.NoSuchMethodError: sun.misc.ProxyGenerator$ConstantPool.seTReadOnly()V
    at sun.misc.ProxyGenerator.generateClassFile(Unknown Source)
    at sun.misc.ProxyGenerator.generateProxyClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Proxy.getProxyClass(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Proxy.newProxyInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.annotationForMap(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations2(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.initAnnotationsIfNecessary(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.getAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.getInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations2(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.initAnnotationsIfNecessary(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.getAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.getInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations2(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.initAnnotationsIfNecessary(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.Class.getAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.<init>(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationType.getInstance(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations2(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.annotation.AnnotationParser.parseAnnotations(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Field.declaredAnnotations(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Field.getAnnotation(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.AccessibleObject.isAnnotationPresent(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.processFields(InjectorImpl.java:617)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.processClass(InjectorImpl.java:575)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.processClass(InjectorImpl.java:568)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.processClassHierarchy(InjectorImpl.java:556)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.inject(InjectorImpl.java:87)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.internalMake(InjectorImpl.java:319)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.internal.di.InjectorImpl.make(InjectorImpl.java:240)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.contexts.ContextInjectionFactory.make(ContextInjectionFactory.java:161)
    at org.eclipse.e4.core.services.translation.TranslationProviderFactory.bundleTranslationService(TranslationProviderFactory.java:34)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultHeadlessContext(E4Application.java:417)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createDefaultContext(E4Application.java:434)
    at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.E4Application.createE4Workbench(E4Application.java:182)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:557)
    at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:543)
    at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:149)
    at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:124)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:110)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:79)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:353)
    at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:180)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
    at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:629)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:584)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1438)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1414)

• I have the latest version of java
• /eclipsepath/eclipse.exe -clean [this isn't working]
• I haven't made any changes on my pc

Answer 1

Eclipse stores a copy of your project in it's cache. It can happen when Eclipse crashes (that happens) that this cache is corrupted and thus Eclipse won't start again. Starting with '--clean' somethimes fixes this but not always.

In my experience one solution is to delete the project's cache. Look for the '.metadata' folder in your workspace and delete it while Eclipse is NOT running (make a backup just in case). Then launch Eclipse again.

You may loose your Run Configurations preferences which you can then restore from your backup copy of ".metadata/.plugins/org.eclipse.debug.core/.launches".