diff --git a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.application/scripts/install.sh b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.application/scripts/install.sh
index adb56c1059d..fdb7016ebd4 100755
--- a/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.application/scripts/install.sh
+++ b/debug/org.eclipse.cdt.debug.application/scripts/install.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,25 @@
 # Contributors:
 #    Red Hat Inc. - initial API and implementation
 ###############################################################################
+olddir=`pwd`
+cd ../..
+PLUGINS_DIR=`pwd`
+# Verify that the install script is being run from a plug-ins folder of a
+# downloaded Eclipse and not in a local user .eclipse folder.
+if [ ! -f ../eclipse ]; then
+echo "$0: error: eclipse executable not found in expected location"
+echo " "
+echo "This can occur if you are running this script from your local .eclipse directory"
+echo "which would mean you are running a shared instance of the Eclipse platform for"
+echo "your distro and have installed the Stand-alone Debugger from an eclipse.org"
+echo "download repo.  Downloading the Stand-alone Debugger feature on top of a distro"
+echo "version of Eclipse Debugger is not supported.  If you are using a distro version"
+echo "of the Eclipse platform, you should not use this script.  Instead, install the"
+echo "corresponding Eclipse CDT package for your distro (e.g. eclipse-cdt package)"
+echo "which will install the Stand-alone Debugger for you."
+exit 1
+fi
+cd $olddir
 if [ ! -d $HOME/cdtdebugger ]; then
 mkdir -p $HOME/cdtdebugger
 fi