Prerequisites

Below are the minimum requirements for running the ESP-IDF. The Installation Manager itself has no dependencies, but during its run, it checks the system to ensure the dependencies of IDF are met.

Windows

To get started with ESP-IDF, you need Git and Python. The ESP-IDF Installation Manager will verify the required prerequisites on your system and install any that are missing.

For more details about ESP-IDF prerequisites, please refer to the ESP-IDF documentation.

Note If any of these prerequisites are missing, the installer will prompt you to install them. If you agree, the installer will automatically install and configure everything required to run ESP-IDF.

MacOS

• libgcrypt: Runtime library for cryptographic functions (QEMU dependency).
• glib: Runtime library for GLib (QEMU dependency).
• pixman: Runtime library for pixman (QEMU dependency).
• sdl2: Runtime library for SDL2 (QEMU dependency).
• libslirp: Runtime library for SLIRP user-mode networking (QEMU dependency).
• dfu-util
• Python with pip capable of creating virtual environments and handling SSL requests

Note On POSIX systems, the installer will check for the required prerequisites. If they are not met, the installation will not proceed. For offline installations, Python 3.11 is required.

Linux

• git
• wget
• flex
• bison
• gperf
• ccache
• libffi-dev
• libssl-dev
• dfu-util
• libusb-1.0-0
• Python with pip capable of creating virtual environments and handling SSL requests

Other Linux prerequisites based on distro

Debian/Ubuntu

• libffi-dev: Development headers for Foreign Function Interface.
• libusb-1.0-0: Runtime library for USB device access.
• libssl-dev: Development headers for OpenSSL (SSL/TLS cryptography).
• libgcrypt20: Runtime library for cryptographic functions (QEMU dependency).
• libglib2.0-0: Runtime library for GLib (QEMU dependency).
• libpixman-1-0: Runtime library for pixman (QEMU dependency).
• libsdl2-2.0-0: Runtime library for SDL2 (QEMU dependency).
• libslirp0: Runtime library for SLIRP user-mode networking (QEMU dependency).

Fedora/RHEL/CentOS

• libffi-devel: Development headers for Foreign Function Interface.
• libusb: Runtime library for USB device access.
• openssl-devel: Development headers for OpenSSL.
• libgcrypt: Runtime library for cryptographic functions (QEMU dependency).
• glib2: Runtime library for GLib (QEMU dependency).
• pixman: Runtime library for pixman (QEMU dependency).
• SDL2: Runtime library for SDL2 (QEMU dependency).
• libslirp: Runtime library for SLIRP user-mode networking (QEMU dependency).

Arch Linux

• libusb: Includes both runtime and development files for USB access.
• libffi: Includes both runtime and development files for Foreign Function Interface.
• openssl: Includes both runtime and development files for OpenSSL.
• libgcrypt: Runtime library for cryptographic functions (QEMU dependency).
• glib: Runtime library for GLib (QEMU dependency).
• pixman: Runtime library for pixman (QEMU dependency).
• sdl2: Runtime library for SDL2 (QEMU dependency).
• libslirp: Runtime library for SLIRP user-mode networking (QEMU dependency).

openSUSE/SUSE Linux Enterprise

• libusb-1_0-0: Runtime library for USB device access.
• libffi-devel: Development headers for Foreign Function Interface.
• libopenssl-devel: Development headers for OpenSSL.
• libgcrypt: Runtime library for cryptographic functions (QEMU dependency).
• glib2: Runtime library for GLib (QEMU dependency).
• pixman-1: Runtime library for pixman (QEMU dependency).
• libsdl2-2_0_0: Runtime library for SDL2 (QEMU dependency).
• libslirp: Runtime library for SLIRP user-mode networking (QEMU dependency).

Note On POSIX systems, the installer will check for the required prerequisites. If they are not met, the installation will not proceed unless --skip-prerequisites-check is used. In that case it’s user’s own responsibility to have all the needed prerequisites already there. For offline installations, Python 3.11 is required.