I installed Eclipse from the repository using the synaptic package manager under Ubuntu 10.04 LTS. I had installed the SDK which I downloaded from Android developer site; link to SDK download site. And I subsequently tried to install the ADT plugin for eclipse link to the installation instruction on the Dev page, by inserting the appropriate address for new software
https://dl-ssl.google.com/android/eclipse/
But trying to download the plugins created errors and did not proceed. I had even tried to insert the path to the SDK in the bashrc file in the home directory as recommended here.
In the end, I downloaded from the eclipse site Helios 3.6.2 and inserted the ADT plugin address which then proceeded without problems. It downloaded the SDK automatically, and did not even need to have downloaded the SDK myself or have added the path to the SDK in .bashrc.
So my question is why did the Eclipse version downloaded from the repository fail? It’s version was within the working versions in the specifications. Also, why is the SDK prescribed as necessary to download prior to the ADT plugin, to be capable for Android development when in my case it was not necessary?
The answer for this is very simple. Eclipse in Ubuntu 10.04 repository is 3.5.x version. While the minimum version of Eclipse for SDK is 3.6 or greater. Here is the link to the system requirements