At a command prompt run:
sudo apt-get install ia32-sun-java6-bin
… or get it from Synaptic.
Download a 32-bit version of Eclipse from: eclipse.org. Extract the package to your home directory.
Right click on the Gnome panel and select “Add to Panel…”
Select “Custom Application Launcher” and click “Add”
Name: Eclipse IDE
Command: /home/qk/eclipse/eclipse -vm /usr/lib/jvm/ia32-java-6-sun/bin/java
Comment:qk is the coolest 🙂
(You can also set the icon by clicking on the default icon and navigating to your eclipse install directory. Replace qk with your username and/or eclipse with where you put eclipse.)
Click “OK”
Click the Eclipse launcher and you should be all set.