Downloading, Building and Deploying the Firmware

[Llwy]

Hello,
Sorry for then newbie question.
I succesfully followed the instructions and compiled both the sdk and the esp8266 micropython firmware last weekend.
Today, I performed a "git pull" on the micropython folder and the "make" command failed with the following error:

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In file included from main.c:39:0:
/home/vagrant/esp-open-sdk/xtensa-lx106-elf/xtensa-lx106-elf/sysroot/usr/include/user_interface.h:11:26: fatal error: lwip/ip_addr.h: No such file or directory
 #include "lwip/ip_addr.h"

Did I forget to update something else? Did I do something wrong?

Best regards, and thanks a lot to everyone, especially Paul and David!

Llwy

[SpotlightKid]

As mentioned before, you need to do "git submodule update --init" after the git pull.

I've also described this in the documentation update PR I mentioned above.

[Llwy]

Sorry, I forgot to write that I did perform the "git submodule update --init" before the "make" command and still obtained the same error.

Llwy

[mad474]

Sorry, I forgot

You'll also have to rebuild the toolchain (esp-open-sdk) again. There were recent changes. I'd keep a constant eye on that.

[Llwy]

You'll also have to rebuild the toolchain (esp-open-sdk) again. There were recent changes. I'd keep a constant eye on that.

Thank you very much.
That fixed it! I did not realize that the SDK too needed updating on a regular basis.

Llwy

[gojimmypi]

Once the firmware is uploaded following command will connect to micropython on the ESP board and give you the REPL prompt :

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sudo screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

To exit:

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CTRL-A CTRL-D

this was really helpful, thanks! (I was leaving off the 115200 param, and wondering why it would not connect, D'oh).

also - note that Ctrl-A, Ctrl-D is not really "exit". It is "Detach". This allows you to later re-attach via

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screen -r

I only noticed that when I was unable to later attempt to connect with minicom as it said

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minicom: cannot open /dev/ttyUSB0: Device or resource busy

although sometimes I'll get the "resource" busy message for minicom and "screen -r" says "There is no screen to be resumed." and when connecting with a new screen command, the device is unresponsive... so it is time to remove the USB and power cycle the ESP8266 to reconnect.

In my case, I'm uploading a file, then attempting to play with it interactively from my Rpi:

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python pyboard.py --device /dev/ttyUSB0 myI2C.py
screen /dev/ttyUSB0 115200

thus if the screen is left "detached" with Ctrl-A Ctrl D, I am unable to later then re-run the pyboard.py to upload something fresh.

As for minicom, note that the fresh install for me had "hardware control" set to "Y" which left my ESP8266 in a state of appearing to be unresponsive. See http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Remote-Serial ... nicom.html for me this was Ctrl-A Z (not Ctrl-A Ctrl-Z) then press "O", and select "Serial port setup", then turn off hardware flow control. Minicom config should look like this:

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Welcome to minicom 2.6.1

OPTIONS: I18n
Compiled on Apr 28 2012, 19:24:31.
Port /dev/ttyUSB0

Press CTRL-A Z for help on special keys

    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
    | A -    Serial Device      : /dev/ttyUSB0                              |
    | B - Lockfile Location     : /var/lock                                 |
    | C -   Callin Program      :                                           |
    | D -  Callout Program      :                                           |
    | E -    Bps/Par/Bits       : 115200 8N1                                |
    | F - Hardware Flow Control : No                                        |
>>> | G - Software Flow Control : No                                        |
>>> |                                                                       |
>>> |    Change which setting?                                              |
    +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+

Software flow control *does* seem to work - only hardware control seems to be problematic. So if experiencing problems when pasting large chucks of text (e.g. via putty, as in my case) try experimenting with that setting.

[deshipu]

To exit screen, use "ctrl+a ctrl+k" or "ctrl+a ctrl+K" (the latter if you don't want a confirmation question).

[gojimmypi]

Could someone please outline the process of downloading, building then deploying the firmware for a beginner?

There are probably a lot of people like me that have used the Arduino IDE to program the Huzzah/ESP8266 but would like to begin to learn how to install the MicroPython firmware in preparation for future releases.

I put together some instructions on building MicroPython on a Raspberry Pi (likely also works on similar debian distros)

http://forum.micropython.org/viewtopic. ... 9769#p9769