Standard Setup of Toolchain for Linux (Legacy GNU Make)¶
Note
Since ESP-IDF V4.0, the default build system is based on CMake. This documentation is for the legacy build system based on GNU Make. Support for this build system may be removed in future major releases.
Install Prerequisites¶
To compile with ESP-IDF you need to get the following packages:
CentOS 7:
sudo yum install gcc git wget make flex bison gperf python python2-cryptography
Ubuntu and Debian:
sudo apt-get install gcc git wget make flex bison gperf python python-pip python-setuptools python-serial python-cryptography python-future python-pyparsing python-pyelftools libffi-dev libssl-dev
Arch:
sudo pacman -S --needed gcc git make flex bison gperf python-pyserial python-cryptography python-future python-pyparsing python-pyelftools
Note
Some older Linux distributions may be missing some of the Python packages listed above (or may use pyserial
version 2.x which is not supported by ESP-IDF). It is possible to install these packages via pip
instead - as described in section Step 4. Install the Required Python Packages.
Toolchain Setup¶
ESP32 toolchain for Linux is available for download from Espressif website:
for 64-bit Linux:
https://dl.espressif.com/dl/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-linux-amd64.tar.gz
for 32-bit Linux:
https://dl.espressif.com/dl/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-linux-i686.tar.gz
Download this file, then extract it in
~/esp
directory:for 64-bit Linux:
mkdir -p ~/esp cd ~/esp tar -xzf ~/Downloads/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-linux-amd64.tar.gz
for 32-bit Linux:
mkdir -p ~/esp cd ~/esp tar -xzf ~/Downloads/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-linux-i686.tar.gz
The toolchain will be extracted into
~/esp/xtensa-esp32-elf/
directory.To use it, you will need to update your
PATH
environment variable in~/.profile
file. To makextensa-esp32-elf
available for all terminal sessions, add the following line to your~/.profile
file:export PATH="$HOME/esp/xtensa-esp32-elf/bin:$PATH"
Alternatively, you may create an alias for the above command. This way you can get the toolchain only when you need it. To do this, add different line to your
~/.profile
file:alias get_esp32='export PATH="$HOME/esp/xtensa-esp32-elf/bin:$PATH"'
Then when you need the toolchain you can type
get_esp32
on the command line and the toolchain will be added to yourPATH
.Note
If you have
/bin/bash
set as login shell, and both.bash_profile
and.profile
exist, then update.bash_profile
instead. In CentOS,alias
should set in.bashrc
.Log off and log in back to make the
.profile
changes effective. Run the following command to verify ifPATH
is correctly set:printenv PATH
You are looking for similar result containing toolchain’s path at the beginning of displayed string:
$ printenv PATH /home/user-name/esp/xtensa-esp32-elf/bin:/home/user-name/bin:/home/user-name/.local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin
Instead of
/home/user-name
there should be a home path specific to your installation.
Permission issues /dev/ttyUSB0¶
With some Linux distributions you may get the Failed to open port /dev/ttyUSB0
error message when flashing the ESP32. This can be solved by adding the current user to the dialout group.
Next Steps¶
To carry on with development environment setup, proceed to section Step 2. Get ESP-IDF.