aseivane / idfx

Tool for flash/monitor ESP-IDF and ESP8266_SDK apps on the WSL2 :zap:

idfx ⚡

While there is no support for USB devices on WSL2 for now, this tool comes to help you to flash and monitor ESP-IDF and ESP8266_SDK applications on the WSL2.

Info:
Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Debian distributions.

Note:
As a prerequisite for using this tool, Python 🐍 needs to be installed on the Windows.

Supported ESP-IDF versions

idfx supports:

• ESP-IDF version 4.0 and above
• ESP8266_SDK version 3.0 and above

Intro

WSL2 still does not support USB devices, but with a little effort we can make possible to flash and monitor ESP device from WSL2.

Info:
Tested on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS and Debian distributions.

For flashing and monitoring over the serial COM port, I've wrote this compact idfx shell script.

Note:
As a prerequisite for using idfx, Python 🐍 needs to be installed on the Windows.

More about idfx you can find in official repository.

Installation 🚀

• Update Linux
  sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade -y

• Install tools required for esp-idf
  sudo apt install -y git wget curl flex bison gperf python3 python3-pip python3-venv cmake ninja-build ccache libffi-dev libssl-dev dfu-util libusb-1.0-0

• Make python3 as default python
  sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3 1

• Make pip3 as default pip
  sudo update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/pip pip /usr/bin/pip3 1

• Make esp directory and go inside
  cd ~ && mkdir esp && cd esp

• Clone esp-idf repository
  git clone --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git

• Modify esp-idf installation script to work with WSL
  cd esp-idf && ! grep -q "dirname --" install.sh; [ $? -eq 0 ] && sed -i 's/dirname/dirname --/g' install.sh

• Run esp-idf installation script
  . ./install.sh || true

• Add esp-idf export script to the user profile script in order to make isp-idf tools visible on the PATH for every session
  echo -e '\n\n. $HOME/esp/esp-idf/export.sh > /dev/null 2>&1 || true' >> ~/.profile

• Install idfx ( ? )
  curl https://git.io/JyBgj --create-dirs -L -o $HOME/bin/idfx && chmod u+x $HOME/bin/idfx

• Source profile script to add all necessary tools to the PATH
  . ~/.profile || true

Create (a copy of hello_world) project 📄

• Make a copy of hello_world example project in home directory
  cd ~ && cp -r $IDF_PATH/examples/get-started/hello_world .

Usage

Signature:

idfx COMMAND [PORT]

Where the PORT is serial COM Port on the Windows (use the Device Manager to find your port).

For the full usage please execute next command:

idfx help

Build, flash and monitor ⚡

• Go inside of project
  cd hello_world

• Set target
  idf.py set-target esp32

• Configure
  idf.py menuconfig

• Build
  idf.py build

• Flash
  ^{(open Device Manager on Windows to find COM port of your ESP, mine is COM2)}
  idfx flash COM2

• Monitor
  ^{(change COM2 with your port)}
  idfx monitor COM2
  _{(To exit monitor press CTRL+] or CTRL+T,X)}

Tip:
Flash and monitor with single command:
idfx flash COM2 monitor

That's it.
Happy coding and flashing! ⚡

Examples

For most of the cases (when you edit the code of your application) you can use idfx all COM2 because this command will build, flash and monitor your app, at once. Of course, you need to change COM2 (in previous command) with correct COM port.

Command	Description
idfx all COM2	Build project, flash and monitor serial output, using port COM2
idfx build	Build project
idfx flash COM2	Flashing project using port COM2
idfx monitor COM2	Display serial output of port COM2
idfx flash COM2 monitor	Flash project and display serial output, using port COM2
idfx erase-flash COM2	Erase the entire flash, using port COM2
idfx help	Show the idfx usage

Author

abobija - abobija.com

License

MIT