Quick install guide for Aptana on Ubuntu 8.04.  Modeled after the Installing Aptana Studio on Debian guide found at the Aptana page for Installing Aptana on Linux.  The issue with the guide provided by Aptana (at least for Ubuntu) is that Ubuntu comes with FF 3 Beta 5 (as of the time of this writing) by default.  Aptana doesn’t play nicely with FF 3 Beta 5, and after what appears to be a successful install, spits back an “embedded browser not available” error.  Note: you don’t have to worry about uninstalling FF 3!

  1. Install Java (sudo apt-get install sun-java6-jre sun-java6-plugin sun-java6-fonts)
  2. Install Firefox 2 (sudo apt-get install firefox-2)
  3. Download and unzip aptana to /usr/local/aptana
  4. Save the following script as runAptana.sh to /usr/local/aptana
    #!/bin/bash
    export MOZILLA_FIVE_HOME=/usr/lib/firefox
    /usr/local/aptana/AptanaStudio
  5. Make runAptana.sh executable (sudo chmod a+x runAptana.sh)
  6. Create a desktop launcher for Aptana and point it at runAptana.sh
    • Right click on your desktop
    • Click on Create Launcher
    • Name: Aptana
    • Command: browse for runAptana.sh
  7. Open firefox-2 Profile Manager (sudo firefox-2 -ProfileManager)
  8. Create ff Profile “aptana” dedicated for Aptana debugging.
  9. Start ff with the aptana Profile: (sudo firefox-2 -P aptana)
  10. Download from here http://update.aptana.com/update/firebug.xpi and install the firebug extension, modified for Aptana debugging. Close Aptana Profile of firefox.
  11. Start Aptana.
    • Go to Run -> Debug…
    • click on the Web Browser within the left pane
    • Press the ‘New’ button.
    • Within the right pane: Name the new configuration “Firefox”
    • Fill within:
      • Browser executable: /usr/bin/firefox-2
      • Arguments: -P aptana -no-remote