Unable to install new software in Eclipse (behind a proxy)

I’m using Eclipse to do some Java work and I wanted to install subclipse from the marketplace/via the install new software. Now I have to go through a proxy server and this can be setup easy enough, but I found the Install New Software dialog stuck at 2% for ages or Market place just does nothing. I even tried downloading the plugin I wanted and deploy manually but it wanted to access other plugins/components, meaning again I got stuck accessing anything on the web.

So how to we fix this issue…

Note: I’m using Neon at the time of writing, therefore I can only confirm that the below works for this version of Eclipse.

Setting your proxy in Eclipse

First let’s review setting up our proxy server configuration in Eclipse.

  • Select Window | Preferences
  • Select General | Network Connections
  • Switch Active Provider to Manual
  • Edit HTTP & HTTPS to set your proxy host, port, user credentials
  • You may also need to set SOCKS up for your proxy, but this might cause an issue if your proxy doesn’t support it. Spoiler Alert: this was caused a problem where I couldn’t download from the market place etc. see below
  • You may well need to Add localhost and 127.0.0.1 to the Proxy bypass option in the Network Connections dialog
  • I had HTTP, host dynamic unchecked
  • Press OK to confirm your proxy settings

Install new software or go to the Eclipse Marketplace

Now I want to install subclipse (or install new software). Either way when running install I now hit the previously mentioned problem of not completing our download from the market place.

The problem appears to be down to (if you read setting up the proxy you’ll see the spoiler), the proxy actually doesn’t support SOCKS. So if you’ve setup a host, user credentials etc. for SOCKS, select SOCKS and click the Clear button (you cannot remove the fields using Edit).

Ofcourse if your proxy does support SOCKS, I’m afraid this probably won’t help.

Now retry accessing the Install New Software or Eclipse Marketplace and all should work.