Failing to install Eclipse JDT offline

[tahl511]

Hello,

Recently, I've decided to take up again with Eclipse my Java developping project, that I interrupted in 2018. At that time I worked with Eclipse Oxygen and JDK 9 in Windows 7 on an old offline desktop.

I did important hardware changes (notably a powerful Intel processor and a 2 TB SSD), have installed Windows 8.1 (not activated) and still don't have an internet connection.

Now, I have tried in vain to install Eclipse after a successful JDK installation. I have executed the Eclipse 2026-09 installer ("eclipse-inst-jre-win64.exe"), where nothing happens after a very brief Eclipse popup. The same happens when I download the Eclipse zip file, copy the Eclipse map to "C:" and execute the "eclipse.exe". I also executed this application in the following way :

C:\eclipse-java-2025-12-R-win32-x86_64\eclipse\eclipse.exe -vm "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-25.0.4\bin\javaw.exe"

This execution results in a popup with an Eclipse error message beginning with "Java was started but returned exit code = 1", followed by "C:\Program Files\Java\jdk-25.0.4\bin\javaw.exe" and about 40 arguments of javaw, including the argument "-Dosgi.requiredJavaVersion=21".

Seeing this argument, I uninstalled JDK 25, successfully installed JDK 21.0.12.1 and tried again the Eclipse 2025-12 installation, this time with a similar Eclipse error message.

Afterwards, I uninstalled JDK 21 and installed JDK 9 and Eclipse Oxygen without any problem.

So, in the first place I would like to understand the installation failures of the (quite) recent Eclipse versions. Do I need an internet connection to succeed ? Can the recent Eclipse version be installed in Windows 8.1 ? Is there maybe a problem to link Eclipse with Java ? Here, I'm thinking of the JDK 9 installation, which results in a jdk directory and a jre directory in "C:\Program Files\Java". On the other hand, I notice the absence of the jre directory (replaced by "\latest") in the case of JDK 21 and JDK 25.

Secondly, I would like to know how I can find out which JDK versions are compatible with a given version of the Eclipse JDT. I've found some docs that explain how to download, from the Eclipse Marketplace, plugins to support Java 25 and Java 27. But here I have the impression that this downloading can only be realized from the Eclipse platform.

So, finally I would like to know if it is possible to download Eclipse Marketplace plugins from a web site and to include them afterwards in the Eclipse platform on an offline desktop.

I would be very glad if some of the Eclipse users/experts can answer (some of) these questions.

Cheers.

[merks]

We are having a major outage problem cascading from the PHP problem.

• https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/work_items/7996
• https://gitlab.eclipse.org/eclipsefdn/helpdesk/-/work_items/7997

So yes, the installers are all broken. 😢

The best get during the outage is a zipped download of a package which includes the require Java version in the package::

https://www.eclipse.org/downloads/packages/

The 2026-09 IDEs require Java 25 to run but come bundled with Java 25.

This is a good place to get JDKs:

https://adoptium.net/temurin/releases/

Don't expect anything to work on < Windows 10 and maybe some things don't work well on < Windows 11. Maybe it works but I wouldn't count on it.

It's possible to mirror a download site and use that site offline:

https://help.eclipse.org/latest/index.jsp?topic=%2Forg.eclipse.platform.doc.isv%2Fguide%2Fp2_mirror.html

[tahl511]

Hello,

Thank you for your very quick answer, but I still have some questions and remarks:

• Some days ago I managed to download the Eclipse 2026-09 installer, but it's its execution that failed on my desktop.
• I have always downloaded the JDKs on the Oracle web site and I didn't know about the Temurin JDKs. Are the JDKs of Oracle still compatible with Eclipse ?
• I thought that Java and Eclipse worked on all platforms. So, I would like to know which are the last versions of the Temurin JDK, the Oracle JDK and the Eclipse JDT that work on Windows 8.1.
• I'm also trying out Debian on another partition. Debian is not included in the list of supported Linux distributions for Eclipse Temurin, but on the same web page they write that "These builds should work on any distribution with glibc version 2.17 or higher". So, I suppose that Eclipse Temurin works also on the latest versions of Debian.

To be honest, I'm not a sufficiently advanced Eclipse user to understand the mirroring procedure of a download site.

Cheers.

[merks]

I expect nothing works on Windows 8. It it does, that’s surprising. I don’t know which ancient version works on Windows 8. You will need to consult google.

Any JDK of a high enough version is compatible. The downloads come with a JDK.

Linux comes in so many varieties, I can’t that easily.

Mostly it’s best to use the latest of everything.

[HeikoKlare]

I am quite sure we have explicitly removed support for Windows 8.1 in the 2025-06 release in the context of eclipse-platform/eclipse.platform.ui#2852

[merks]

That explains my expectation! 😁

[tahl511]

Thanks a lot for your help !

So, now I have the choice between:

• the newest versions on Linux;
• 2025-03 and JDK 21 on Windows 8.1.

Cheers.