Eclipse hanging on start up

Question

I was working on my Macbook, when my battery ran out. Now Eclipse refuses to start, getting stuck on "Loading Workbench". The stacktrace in the bottom is from pressing ^C after a minute or so of hanging.

~/Downloads/eclipse$ ./Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse -clean -debug -consolelog 
Start VM: -Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Xms40m
-Xmx256m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-clean
-Djava.class.path=/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.101.R34x_v20081125.jar
-os macosx
-ws carbon
-arch x86
-showsplash
-launcher /Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/eclipse
-name Eclipse
--launcher.library /Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS//../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.carbon.macosx_1.0.101.R34x_v20080731/eclipse_1115.so
-startup /Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.101.R34x_v20081125.jar
-clean
-debug
-consolelog
-vm /System/Library/Frameworks/JavaVM.framework
-vmargs
-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=1.5
-Xdock:icon=../Resources/Eclipse.icns
-XstartOnFirstThread
-Xms40m
-Xmx256m
-XX:MaxPermSize=256m
-Dorg.eclipse.swt.internal.carbon.smallFonts
-clean
-Djava.class.path=/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/../../../plugins/org.eclipse.equinox.launcher_1.0.101.R34x_v20081125.jar 
Install location:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/
Configuration file:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/configuration/config.ini loaded
Configuration location:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/configuration/
Framework located:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.4.3.R34x_v20081215-1030.jar
Framework classpath:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.osgi_3.4.3.R34x_v20081215-1030.jar
Splash location:
    /Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/plugins/org.eclipse.platform_3.3.101.v200902111700/splash.bmp
Debug options:
    file:/Users/admin/Downloads/eclipse/Eclipse.app/Contents/MacOS/.options not found
Time to load bundles: 16
Starting application: 3649
!SESSION 2011-08-30 18:03:17.958 -----------------------------------------------
eclipse.buildId=M20090211-1700
java.version=1.6.0_26
java.vendor=Apple Inc.
BootLoader constants: OS=macosx, ARCH=x86, WS=carbon, NL=en_US
Command-line arguments:  -os macosx -ws carbon -arch x86 -clean -debug -consolelog

!ENTRY org.eclipse.core.resources 2 10035 2011-08-30 18:03:22.073
!MESSAGE The workspace exited with unsaved changes in the previous session; refreshing workspace to recover changes.

!ENTRY org.tigris.subversion.clientadapter.javahl 1 0 2011-08-30 18:03:22.782
!MESSAGE Failed to load JavaHL Library.
These are the errors that were encountered:
no libsvnjavahl-1 in java.library.path
no svnjavahl-1 in java.library.path
no svnjavahl in java.library.path
java.library.path = .:/Users/admin/Library/Java/Extensions:/Library/Java/Extensions:/System/Library/Java/Extensions:/usr/lib/java
^C
Exception in thread "Thread-1" org.eclipse.swt.SWTException: Invalid thread access
    at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:3777)
    at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:3695)
    at org.eclipse.swt.SWT.error(SWT.java:3666)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.error(Widget.java:681)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.checkWidget(Widget.java:341)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell.getShells(Shell.java:885)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Shell.kEventWindowHidden(Shell.java:1213)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Widget.windowProc(Widget.java:2044)
    at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.windowProc(Display.java:4171)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.JNIBridge._takedown_splash(Native Method)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.JNIBridge.takeDownSplash(JNIBridge.java:110)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.takeDownSplash(Main.java:1863)
    at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main$SplashHandler.run(Main.java:106)

Any ideas? I guess I will try installing JavaHL if there are no other suggestions. Eclipse always complained about it, but it always started up before.

Answer 1

The procedure shown at http://off-topic.biz/en/eclipse-hangs-at-startup-showing-only-the-splash-screen/ worked for me

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. :-)

Answer 2

Most solutions delete or alter the metadata, unfortunately this often removes SVN and library information from projects which is a major time-loss.

I have found a commandline switch (See https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=389738) that clears any saved state (open windows and such) which usually cause startup hangs: -clearPersistedState.

I throw in a whole range of options now:

• In a terminal, type <eclipse dir>/eclipse -clean -refresh -debug -consolelog -clearPersistedState
• Open the workspace that causes the issue
• Wait until eclipse is fully started and ready, then close it and start it again normally

This always solves startup issues for me.