I've solved the problem by installing sun-java5-jdk. sun-java5-jdk provides: java-compiler, java2-compiler
To get back to a clean system I tried to deinstall all java / eclipse /pydev related packages using: sudo apt-get autoremove eclipse-pydev sun-java5-jre As per your request: sudo apt-get install eclipse-platform: The following extra packages will be installed: ant eclipse-rcp java-common libbcel-java libcommons-beanutils-java libcommons-collections-java libcommons-collections3-java libcommons-dbcp-java libcommons-digester-java libcommons-el-java libcommons-launcher-java libcommons-logging-java libcommons-modeler-java libcommons-pool-java libjsch-java liblog4j1.2-java liblucene-java liblucene-java-doc libmx4j-java libregexp-java libservlet2.4-java libswt3.2-gtk-java libswt3.2-gtk-jni libtomcat5.5-java Suggested packages: ant-doc eclipse-jdt eclipse-pde equivs libbcel-java-doc libcommons-beanutils-java-doc libcommons-collections-java-doc libcommons-collections3-java-doc liblogkit-java libavalon-framework-java libgnumail-java tomcat4 tomcat5 jython tomcat5.5 Recommended packages: ant-optional jikes java-compiler eclipse-platform-gcj eclipse eclipse-rcp-gcj libswt3.2-gtk-gcj The following NEW packages will be installed: ant eclipse-platform eclipse-rcp java-common libbcel-java libcommons-beanutils-java libcommons-collections-java libcommons-collections3-java libcommons-dbcp-java libcommons-digester-java libcommons-el-java libcommons-launcher-java libcommons-logging-java libcommons-modeler-java libcommons-pool-java libjsch-java liblog4j1.2-java liblucene-java liblucene-java-doc libmx4j-java libregexp-java libservlet2.4-java libswt3.2-gtk-java libswt3.2-gtk-jni libtomcat5.5-java 0 upgraded, 25 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded. I see no java compiler there! Also with: sudo apt-get install eclipse-platform-gcj No compiler! java-compiler is recommended, but not installed. sudo apt-get install java-compiler: Package java-compiler is a virtual package provided by: sun-java5-jdk 1.5.0-08-0ubuntu1 jikes-sun 0.9 j2sdk1.4 1.4.2.02-1ubuntu3 kaffe-pthreads 2:1.1.7-4 kaffe-jthreads 2:1.1.7-4 jikes-sablevm 1.13-1 jikes-kaffe 2:1.1.7-4 jikes-gij 1:1.22-4 jikes-classpath 2:0.92-3 eclipse-ecj-gcj 3.1.2-3ubuntu1 eclipse-ecj 3.1.2-3ubuntu1 gcj-4.1 4.1.1-14ubuntu7 gcj 4:4.1.1-6ubuntu3 You should explicitly select one to install. It seems that the developers really want to force the user to choose his/her own java-compiler. I'm not sure if I answered all your questions, please let me know if you need to know anything else. -- pydev dependencies https://launchpad.net/bugs/68623 -- ubuntu-bugs mailing list ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs