Environment setup

[中文]


When setting up ESP32-S2 environment using command idf.py set-target esp32s2, an error occurred as “Error: No such command ‘set-target’”. What could be the reason?

  • The ESP-IDF is adapted to ESP32-S2 from release/v4.2, thus setting up ESP32-S2 environment in previous versions will cause errors. In this case, when using command idf.py set-target esp32s2, there will be error as “Error: No such command ‘set-target’”. It is recommended to perform tests and development on ESP32-S2 using ESP-IDF release/v4.2 and later versions. For more information, please refer to ESP32-S2 Get Started.

  • For information on the support of different ESP chips by different ESP-IDF versions, please refer to ESP-IDF Release and SoC Compatibility.


When installing ESP-IDF version master using ESP-IDF Tools 2.3 in Windows system, an error occurred as: Installation has failed with exit code 2. What could be the reason?

This is related to the bad network environment. The Github repository cannot be downloaded smoothly under such network environment, causing SDK download failure on your PC. If you encounter Github access problems, it is recommended to use the offline version of the latest ESP-IDF Windows Installer.


On Windows, when setting up the environment using esp-idf-tools, the following error occurs when running make menuconfig:

-- Warning: Did not find file Compiler/-ASM Configure
-- Configuring incomplete, errors occurred!

This is because the system could not find the project to be compiled. You need to change directory to the ESP-IDF project before running commands to configure and compile the project. For example, to build the project hello world, go to esp-idf/examples/get-started/hello_world before running the commands.


During the installation process of esp-idf-tools on Windows, an exception occurs with the Python tool:

Installation has failed with exit code 1

This error is caused by an unsuitable network environment. Please check the “Download via gitee” option when using the tool.


What should I do if I get Download failed: security channel support error when installing build environment in the Windows system?

This is because the Windows system has disabled the default support for SSl3.0.

Solution: Go to Control Panel and find Internet option, select Advanced, and check the use SSL 3.0 option.


When executing export.bat in Windows system, what should I do if I get CMake and gdbgui version errors?

C:\Users\xxxx\.espressif\tools\cmake\3.16.4\bin
The following Python requirements are not satisfied:
gdbgui>=0.13.2.0

This is because the upstream gdbgui has been updated, thus it is not compatible with the low version of python. The current solution is to manually modify the root file requirements.txt in ESP-IDF by changing the description of gdbgui version to gdbgui==0.13.2.0.


Errors occurred when using idf.menuconfig and idf.build after updating the ESP-IDF version from v3.3 to the latest one:

  • Please refer to the Quick Start Guide to set up the environment again.

  • Remove build directory build and configuration file sdkconfig under the hello_world directory.


How to configure PATH and IDF_PATH when developing ESP32 and ESP8266 simultaneously?

  • For PATH, there is no need to do extra configurations. You can put them together as: export PATH=”$HOME/esp/xtensa-esp32-elf/bin:$HOME/esp/xtensa-lx106-elf/bin:$PATH”.

  • For IDF_PATH, you can specify it for separate chips as:

    In ESP32 related projects, use IDF_PATH = $(HOME)/esp/esp-idf. In ESP8266 related projects, use IDF_PATH = $(HOME)/esp/ESP8266_RTOS_SDK.


Do I need to use command idf.py set-target every time when switching to another project?

When building the project with idf.py build, the target is determined as follows:

  1. If the build directory build already exists, the system will use the target the project was previously built for. It is stored in CMakeCache.txt file in the build directory.

  2. Alternatively, if the build directory doesn’t exist, the system will check if the sdkconfig file exists, and use the target specified there.

  3. If both the build directory and sdkconfig file exist with different targets specified, the system will report an error. This shouldn’t happen normally, unless sdkconfig was changed manually without deleting the build directory.

  4. If neither sdkconfig file nor build directory exists, it can be considered to use IDF_TARGET to set the target as a CMake variable or environment variable. If this variable is set and is different from the target specified in sdkconfig or in the build directory, the system will also report an error.

  5. Finally, if sdkconfig doesn’t exist, build directory doesn’t exist, and the target is not set via IDF_TARGET, then the system will use the default value. The default value can be set in sdkconfig.defaults.

  6. If the target isn’t set using any of the above methods, then the system will build for ESP32 target.

To answer your question:

  • idf.py set-target stores the selected target in the project’s build directory and sdkconfig file, not in the terminal environment. So, once the project is configured and built once for a certain target, if you switch to a different directory and build another project, then come back, the target will not change, and will be the same as previously set for this project. And it’s not necessary to run idf.py set-target again other than to switch to a different target.

  • If you want to make the project built for certain target by default, add CONFIG_IDF_TARGET="esp32s2" to the sdkconfig.defaults file of the project. After this, if sdkconfig file doesn’t exist and build directory doesn’t exist, idf.py build command will build for that target specified in sdkconfig.defaults.

  • idf.py set-target command can still be used to override the default target set in sdkconfig.defaults.


How to know the version of ESP-IDF, is it recorded in a certain document?

  • Command line: You can obtain the version number by inputting idf.py --version in the terminal with an IDF environment.

  • CMake script: You can obtain the version number through the variable ${IDF_VERSION_MAJOR}.${IDF_VERSION_MINOR}.${IDF_VERSION_PATCH}.

  • Code compilation: You can obtain the version number by calling esp_get_idf_version during code compilation or directly using the macro definition of version in “components/esp_common/include/esp_idf_version.h”.


How to optimize ESP-IDF compilation in Windows environment?

  • Please add the directories of ESP-IDF source code and compiler .espressif to the exclusions of anti-virus program.


Is there an esptool that can be used directly on Windows?

  • You can go to esptool –> Releases and download the Windows version of the esptool from the Asset column on the drop-down page.


What could be the cause of the error KeyError: ‘idfSelectedId’ when running . /install.sh?

  • This is because ESP-IDF v5.0 or above is installed on your system. You can check the configuration in the ~/.espressif/idf-env.json file.

  • This error can be solved by running rm -rf ~/.espressif/idf-env.json.


When running demo, the package manager component dependency cannot be pulled, with the failure information Invaild manifest format, Invalid dependency format, and unknown keys in dependency details: override_path. What could be the reason?

  • This is due to missing component dependencies and can be solved after updating component-manager. The corresponding command is pip install –upgrade idf-component-manager.