Eclipse Luna gives NullPointerException when debugging hits a breakpoint - eclipse

Question

Whenever I hit a breakpoint in my code, I see an obnoxious dialog informing me that "Perspective switch job has encountered a problem", the details of which simply say "NullPointerException". The error log shows this stack trace:
java.lang.NullPointerException
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage.showPart(WorkbenchPage.java:1298)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage.busyShowView(WorkbenchPage.java:1269)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage$13.run(WorkbenchPage.java:4144)
at org.eclipse.swt.custom.BusyIndicator.showWhile(BusyIndicator.java:70)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.WorkbenchPage.showView(WorkbenchPage.java:4140)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.views.ViewContextService.showViewQuiet(ViewContextService.java:1168)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.launchConfigurations.PerspectiveManager$4.runInUIThread(PerspectiveManager.java:528)
at org.eclipse.debug.internal.ui.launchConfigurations.PerspectiveManager$MyUIJob$1.run(PerspectiveManager.java:229)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.RunnableLock.run(RunnableLock.java:35)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Synchronizer.runAsyncMessages(Synchronizer.java:136)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.runAsyncMessages(Display.java:4147)
at org.eclipse.swt.widgets.Display.readAndDispatch(Display.java:3764)
at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine$9.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1151)
at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.swt.PartRenderingEngine.run(PartRenderingEngine.java:1032)
at org.eclipse.e4.ui.internal.workbench.E4Workbench.createAndRunUI(E4Workbench.java:148)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench$5.run(Workbench.java:636)
at org.eclipse.core.databinding.observable.Realm.runWithDefault(Realm.java:332)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.Workbench.createAndRunWorkbench(Workbench.java:579)
at org.eclipse.ui.PlatformUI.createAndRunWorkbench(PlatformUI.java:150)
at org.eclipse.ui.internal.ide.application.IDEApplication.start(IDEApplication.java:135)
at org.eclipse.equinox.internal.app.EclipseAppHandle.run(EclipseAppHandle.java:196)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.runApplication(EclipseAppLauncher.java:134)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.internal.adaptor.EclipseAppLauncher.start(EclipseAppLauncher.java:104)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:382)
at org.eclipse.core.runtime.adaptor.EclipseStarter.run(EclipseStarter.java:236)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.invokeFramework(Main.java:648)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.basicRun(Main.java:603)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.run(Main.java:1465)
at org.eclipse.equinox.launcher.Main.main(Main.java:1438)
I've tried disabling perspective switching (which I don't want anyway) via Options / Run/Debug / Perspectives by setting the "Debug" perspective to "None", but it keeps getting reset to "Debug", and does not change this behavior.
This is extremely annoying, making debugging nearly unusable.
I tried adding -clean to eclipse.ini, as suggested here Myeclipse is throwing some error when i debug server ... but that had no impact, either.
Ideas?

Answer 1

I have encountered the same problem (which is likely a bug) in Eclipse Mars. Every breakpoint reached opens the error dialog you described.
I was able to prevent the error by updating the following preferences (which are also present in Luna):
Go to Window > Preferences
On the left, go to Run/Debug > Perspectives
In the Application Types/Launchers list, select the type of application that you are debugging.
On the right under Modes/Perspectives, make sure that None is selected for the Debug dropdown.
Note: I was unable to find any setting that completely disables the perspective switch for all application types, so you'll have to do this for each type you debug.

Answer 2

The above Luna workaround did not help for me on Eclipse Mars. The bug as documented here: https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=477477
Details that resetting the Java EE Perspective (Window -> Perspective -> Reset Perspective...) Will stop the NullPointerException from occuring.
I had a heavily customized Java EE perspective; after doing the reset, the NullPointerException went away.

Answer 3

Follow this step In Window > Preferences > Android > Lint Error Checking; Uncheck "When saving files check for errors".