Okay, here goes.You CAN in fact run Tomcat under Eclipse, despite the fact that your default Tomcat installation may be set to run as root (and by default may require root privileges). This is because when Eclipse (and I assume you are also using the WTP/WST which is what actually provides the Tomcat integration) launches Tomcat with an alternate configuration file, it passes some extra command line options (setting catalina.base to your Tomcat installation directory, and setting catalina.home to a hidden Eclipse directory that it manages, and which contains an alternate configuration file). Without Eclipse, catalina.base and catalina.home usually point to the same place.
Anyway, those details aren't important, it just explains to everyone else how in the world Eclipse manages to launch Tomcat without root privileges (because they seemed to doubt it was possible).
So here's some guidance on fixing your problem (invalid tomcat installation directory).
See: http://www.eclipsezone.com/eclipse/forums/t33013.htmlThe basic summary is that Eclipse is looking for certain files inside your tomcat directory:
common/lib/servlet-api.jar common/lib/naming-common.jar bin/bootstrap.jar conf webappsBut at least one of those files doesn't exist because it is named something different (the article suggests servlet-api.jar is named "[servletapi5].jar", and from what I can remember with the same problem a few months ago on Fedora, I agree). The simple solution is to create a properly named symbolic link to that file, then you should be set.
Good luck! -Adam Batkin
Tomcat is a java servlet application server and yet developers using eclipse are doing development work so why should it be a "root" requirement to run and/or start it? Sure beats me... But in any case and from what I can tell, no matter what I enter into the "Tomcat installation directory" textbox, the eclipse program keeps saying that the directory provided is not a valid tomcat installation directory and will not allow me to continue. I have used eclipse on windows for awhile and tomcat (or other server) selections runs fine - "root" or not and it even "installs" the server (along with Sun's version of their app server w/ DB support) which makes it pleasant for developers so why not follow the same pathway for linux-based developers? Why force configuration make us jump through hoops when all "we" care about is to develop applications? I *should* be able to choose *any* AS with Eclipse under Linux? Anyone care to jump in and tell me how to get tomcat started under Eclipse's control?