How to make Eclipse 3.5 work on gtk2 2.18

If you’re using Eclipse in Linux with gtk2, then you might have run into this issue: Buttons don’t work when you click on them, tree views are initially empty, icons are missing or not drawn correctly. To fix this, just run this command before you start Eclipse:

export GDK_NATIVE_WINDOWS=1

I suggest that you put it into a little wrapper script. With this option enabled, Eclipse works like it should, even on Linux/gtk.

It’s a good example of the pain when working with Eclipse developers: Everyone agrees that it’s a bug and it’s pretty clear what needs to be done. The fix apparently even exists and “just” needs to be copied from the 3.6 sources to 3.5. And nothing happens because the release process is so involved that it just takes too much time and the workaround (adding the line above or control Eclipse with the keyboard) is too simple.

I can’t say on which side I’m on here. I understand why nothing happens but it still freaks me out.

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