Issue with updating eclipse - eclipse

Question

When I select "Help->Check for Updates" in eclipse, I get the following error message at the bottom of the window. From this message "Only one of the following can be installed at once: " it appears I have multiple copies of the same component installed. Under "About Eclipse SDK=>Installation Details" I found at least two instances of Equinox P2 Provisioning: under "Eclipse SDK" and "PHP Development Tools".
Any suggestions on how to get this resolved would be much appreciated.
I'm running eclipse helios 3.6.1 on CentOS 5.2.
Cannot complete the install because of a conflicting dependency.
Software being installed: Eclipse SDK 3.6.2.M20110210-1200 (org.eclipse.sdk.ide 3.6.2.M20110210-1200)
Software currently installed: Shared profile 1.0.0.1288623084982 (SharedProfile_SDKProfile 1.0.0.1288623084982)
Only one of the following can be installed at once:
Equinox p2 Provisioning 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFZFFZRuSD2LMtVxyz0Vr (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.jar 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFZFFZRuSD2LMtVxyz0Vr)
Equinox p2 Provisioning 2.0.0.v20100503-897HFZ-FdHjO2NQo0sD_Nt (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.jar 2.0.0.v20100503-897HFZ-FdHjO2NQo0sD_Nt)
Equinox p2 Provisioning 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628 (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.jar 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628)
Cannot satisfy dependency:
From: Shared profile 1.0.0.1288623084982 (SharedProfile_SDKProfile 1.0.0.1288623084982)
To: org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.jar [2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFZFFZRuSD2LMtVxyz0Vr]
Cannot satisfy dependency:
From: Equinox p2 Provisioning 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628 (org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.group 2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628)
To: org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.jar [2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628]
Cannot satisfy dependency:
From: Eclipse SDK 3.6.2.M20110210-1200 (org.eclipse.sdk.ide 3.6.2.M20110210-1200)
To: org.eclipse.equinox.p2.user.ui.feature.group [2.0.1.r361_v20100903-897HFa-FX0z-z-ntoaavz0JPX628]
Update 9/15: I read somewhere that this may be due to a permissions issue and that I should run eclipse as root and perform the update. I was indeed able to complete the 3.6.2 SDK update as root but then afterwards all of my add-on components (e.g. subclipse, PDT, etc.) were gone.

Answer 1

You are getting this message because you are trying to install into a read-only (shared) location. The indication is at this line:
Software currently installed: Shared profile 1.0.0.1288623084982 (SharedProfile_SDKProfile 1.0.0.1288623084982)
The reason why there is a failure is that your install plan would remove an old version of a feature that is part of the shared install. Since a shared install cannot be changed, you get the conflicting dependency.
As it happens, I am working on a patch for exactly this bug. See:
https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=332158
The fix would not allow you to install in this situation, but it would at least provide a better error message for you.

Answer 2

I got this message or something similar because I had installed Eclipse to my C: drive on Windows 7. Trying to do an update required escalation but Eclipse wasn't prompting me. When I restarted Eclipse using "Run as Administrator", it had the proper permissions to continue and it let me upgrade.

Answer 3

Cannot satisfy dependency:
From: Eclipse SDK 3.6.2.M20110210-1200
It needs a dependency that only exists in the update site for Helios 3.6.2 and you are running 3.6.1. You can either upgrade to the latest version of Helios (or better yet, Indigo) or add the update sites. I don't know the URL's off the top of my head, but you can try this method:
Download a fresh copy of Helios and install it to a separate folder. Open up help>install new software and click "available software sites". Then export the default sites and import them into your existing Eclipse installation. Your plugins should now update correctly.
EDIT: add this to your update sites: http://download.eclipse.org/eclipse/updates/3.6/

Answer 4

Note that shared install have now (upcoming Eclipse 4.3, 2013) a way to:
Detect shared install changes:
When Eclipse is running in a read-only folder (also known as shared install) and the read-only installation has changed (e.g. new plugins installed, new version of Eclipse installed), Eclipse will now detect this change and warn that your personal additional plugins have been uninstalled.
Provide a Migration Wizard:
Eclipse now includes a migration wizard to help users through the re-ininstallation of their plug-ins.
This wizard is presented in two situations.
First, when a read-only installation of Eclipse is being changed (i.e. Eclipse is being updated or plugins are added / remove),
second when a new read-only installation of Eclipse is run for the first time.
See also "Shared installs just got better!" for more:
Building on this support, we've also decided to assist users in re-importing their plug-ins from a previous read-only installation.
The reason is simple, many corporations chose to deploy new versions of Eclipse in different folders. This is required to give teams the ability to adopt Eclipse at their own pace, but it also means that when users start using a new Eclipse install, they need to re-install the plug-ins they had installed on their own.
Of course users could use the import/export feature provided by p2, but the time wasted by the user wondering why the plug-ins have vanished and then figuring out what to re-install can be significant, which is why in such situation we are also presenting the migration wizard.