Download J2SDK 1.4.2. Download Eclipse SDK 3.1.1. Add Universe.
sudo apt-get install rails subversion sh j2sdk-1_4_2_09-linux-i586.bin tar xzf eclipse-SDK-3.1.1-linux-gtk.tar.gz export PATH=`pwd`/j2sdk1.4.2_09/bin/:$PATH eclipse/eclipse
Follow these directions.
Done.
I didn’t run the complete set of instructions, but having now downloaded and run with jdk1.5.0_05, I can open the Rails perspective, and have encountered no problems.
I simply selected j2sdk-1_4_2_09 the first time as I had problems working with the version of Eclipse/Java packaged up with apt-get, so I decided to try to follow the Eclipse instructions to the letter.