Esp32 arduino ide linux

Installing the ESP32 Board in Arduino IDE (Mac OS X and Linux instructions)

There’s an add-on for the Arduino IDE that allows you to program the ESP32 using the Arduino IDE and its programming language. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to install the ESP32 board in the Arduino IDE on Mac OS X or Linux. If you’re using a Windows PC follow these instructions instead.

Watch the Video Tutorial

This tutorial is available in video format (watch below) and in written format (continue reading this page).

If you have any problems during the installation procedure, take a look at the ESP32 troubleshooting guide.

If you like the ESP32, enroll in our brand new course: Learn ESP32 with Arduino IDE.

Installing the ESP32 Add-on on Arduino IDE

Important: before starting this installation procedure, make sure you have the latest version of the Arduino IDE installed in your computer. If you don’t, uninstall it and install it again. Otherwise, it may not work. Having the latest Arduino IDE software installed from arduino.cc/en/Main/Software, continue with this tutorial.

IMPORTANT NOTE:

1. If this is your first time installing the ESP32 on the Arduino IDE, simply follow the installation procedure described below;
2. If you’ve already installed the ESP32 add-on using the old method, you should remove the espressif folder first. Go to the end of this post to learn how to remove the espressif folder.

1. Installing the ESP32 Board

To install the ESP32 board in your Arduino IDE, follow these next instructions:

1) Open the preferences window from the Arduino IDE. Go to Arduino > Preferences

2) Enter https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json into the “Additional Board Manager URLs” field as shown in the figure below. Then, click the “OK” button:

Note: if you already have the ESP8266 boards URL, you can separate the URLs with a comma as follows:

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json, http://arduino.esp8266.com/stable/package_esp8266com_index.json

3) Open boards manager. Go to Tools > Board > Boards Manager…

4) Search for ESP32 and press install button for the “ESP32 by Espressif Systems“:

5) That’s it. It should be installed after a few seconds:

Testing the Installation

Plug the ESP32 board to your computer. Then, follow these steps:

2) Select your Board in Tools > Board menu (in my case it’s the DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1)

3) Select the Port (if you don’t see the COM Port in your Arduino IDE, you need to install the ESP32 CP210x USB to UART Bridge VCP Drivers):

4) Open the following example under File > Examples > WiFi (ESP32) > WiFi Scan

6) Press the Upload button in the Arduino IDE. Wait a few seconds while the code compiles and uploads to your board.

7) If everything went as expected, you should see a “Done uploading.” message.

8) Open the Arduino IDE Serial Monitor at a baud rate of 115200:

9) Press the ESP32 on-board Enable button and you should see the networks available near your ESP32:

This is a very basic tutorial that illustrates how to prepare your Arduino IDE for the ESP32 on your computer.

2. Deleting the espressif folder

If this is your first time installing the ESP32 on Arduino IDE you can ignore this section.

If you’ve followed the older installation procedure and you’ve manually installed the ESP32 add-on with Git GUI, you need to remove the espressif folder from your Arduino IDE.

To find your espressif folder and Arduino IDE location (installation path), open your Arduino IDE and go to Arduino > Preferences:

Copy the location from the “Sketchbook location” field:

Go to your Arduino IDE location directory: /Users/Rui/Documents/Arduino, open the hardware folder, and delete the espressif folder.

Wrapping Up

This is a very basic tutorial that illustrates how to prepare your Arduino IDE for the ESP32 on a Mac or a Linux PC. We took those screenshots using Mac OS X, but a very similar procedure is done for Linux.

You might also like reading:

Do you have any questions? Leave a comment below!

Thanks for reading. If you like this post probably you might like my next ones, so please support me by subscribing my blog and my Facebook Page.

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26 thoughts on “Installing the ESP32 Board in Arduino IDE (Mac OS X and Linux instructions)”

I followed your first steps on using ESP32 and the compilation failed with the message:
Arduino: 1.8.5 (Linux), Board: “DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1, 80MHz, 921600, None”
Archiving built core (caching) in: /tmp/arduino_cache_543039/core/core_esp32_esp32_esp32doit-devkit-v1_FlashFreq_80,UploadSpeed_921600,DebugLevel_none_cad725f6ad98297b5930f65b34ce8c67.a
Traceback (most recent call last):
File “/home/mariano/.arduino15/packages/esp32/tools/esptool/2.3.1/esptool.py”, line 34, in
import serial
ImportError: No module named serial
Multiple libraries were found for “WiFi.h”
Used: /home/mariano/.arduino15/packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/1.0.0/libraries/WiFi
Not used: /home/mariano/arduino-1.8.5/libraries/WiFi
exit status 1
Error compiling for board DOIT ESP32 DEVKIT V1. This report would have more information with
“Show verbose output during compilation”
option enabled in File -> Preferences. Can you help me on how to sort this out? Reply

Hi Mariano.
Seems that you have two errors going on.
First, remove the old installation and everything related with the ESP32 from the arduino folders.
We also recommend uninstalling Arduino and re-installing with the latest version.
Then, make sure you follow this troubleshooting guide – 5. Error compiling WiFiScan sketch : https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-troubleshooting-guide/ The WiFi error means that you have multiple libraries installed. Remove the Arduino WiFi library and do the procedure and shown in the previous link.
I hope this helps,
Regards,
Sara 🙂 Reply

I had the same problem. The cause is the lack of Pytohn’s serial library. I was able to solve the problem by installing the pip (I did not have it installed) and then the pyserial, following these instructions: – https://pip.pypa.io/en/stable/installing/ – https://github.com/pyserial/pyserial Best Regards Reply

Many thanks Alexandre, I was getting the same error. All it required was a ‘pip install pyserial’ on the command line (it needs the Python2 pip not pip3). Reply

Got mine working after errors: lua: cannot open init.lua , on my Ubuntu 18.04.1 (64 bit) OS, on Arduino 1.8.8 (64) IDE, fixed by installing the following in terminal.. apt install python-pip
followed by: pip install esptool
then: pip install pyserial
whatever that is.. mine started working on WiFi Scan
Hope it help you, Love, Kevin Reply

It is absolutely okay for esp wroom 32 chip based a board called “LOLIN 32 v 1.0.0”. Although it doesn’t have enable button on board but with reset pin but the “wifi-scan.ino” works flawlessly. But in case of esp wrover 32 based breadboard friendly development board having ch340 driver, I could’t help uploading any sketch on it, although it shows the port :”/dev/ttyUSB0″ while connecting board to computer. Please help me so that I can upload programs to that ESP WROVER 32 (bread board friendly) development board as soon as possible….
with regards Subhojit Reply

Hi.
I think it may be an issue regarding CH340 drivers and MACOS.
Can you please read the following article and see if it helps: thingsmatic.com/2017/08/07/using-ch340-devices-with-osx/
Regards,
Sara Reply

Hi Matthew.
You can use the information on github and see if it helps: github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32
Regards,
Sara Reply

try and put
https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/releases/download/1.0.3/package_esp32_index.json Had to use this one as the SSL certificate had expired on additional boards manager url that was given. Reply

I’m new to this subject, can you tell me if this json file contains the driver to communicate esp32 with the arduino ide and if it works on windows 10? Reply

I am using a MacBook Pro (13-inch, 2017, Two Thunderbolt 3 ports with 2.3 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5. I struggled a lot as I was not able to see a port for ESP32 in Arduino IDE. Finally, I stumbled upon this youtube video and voila: youtube.com/watch?v=wyocdvAKo64 I hope this helps. Reply

I have an issue with my ESP32 (Arduino Uno working perfectly on the same Arduino IDE on Mac). Compilation is OK, then I have a communication issue : Traceback (most recent call last):
esptool.py v2.6
Une erreur est survenue lors du transfert du croquis
Serial port /dev/cu.usbserial-0001
File “esptool.py”, line 2959, in
File “esptool.py”, line 2952, in _main
File “esptool.py”, line 2652, in main
File “esptool.py”, line 222, in init
File “serial/init.py”, line 88, in serial_for_url
File “serial/serialposix.py”, line 268, in open
serial.serialutil.SerialException: [Errno 16] could not open port /dev/cu.usbserial-0001: [Errno 16] Resource busy: ‘/dev/cu.usbserial-0001’
Failed to execute script esptool Tried many things without success, any idea or help is more than welcome. Reply

Hi Alex.
I think that means you don’t have the right COM port selected or that COM port is being used by another program.
Regards,
Sara Reply

Hi Sara, Possibly yes, however it is the only port appearing when plugin the ESP32 into the USB (not available/visible when unplugging the ESP32)
If an other program than the ArduinoIDE is using the port how can we know which one (On MacBookAir) ? regards
Alex Reply

Hi Alex, It may be the security issue. You may not have permission to access the port. I am not so aware of mac. -John Reply

Brand new to this experience, so a very noob question that these articles don’t address (though I maybe just missed it). How do I physically connect the esp32 to my computer? Reply

Hi.
Most ESP32 development boards have a USB socket. Connect an USB cable from the ESP32 to your computer.
The USB cable must have data wires (not just power wires) so that you can establish a serial communication and upload code.
Regards,
sara Reply

Hello! I ran into some problems because the board manager URL is out dated. I used https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/gh-pages/package_esp32_index.json instead to install the most recent version and this fixed the problem! Hope this can help someone:) Reply

Hello,
I can’t get this to work at all, I’ve tried 3 different Windows 7 computers and receive the same result and it is using the correct port: File “PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py”, line 352, in exec_module File “esptool\bin_image.py”, line 14, in File “PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py”, line 352, in exec_module File “esptool\loader.py”, line 30, in File “PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py”, line 352, in exec_module File “serial__init__.py”, line 29, in File “PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py”, line 352, in exec_module File “serial\serialwin32.py”, line 15, in File “PyInstaller\loader\pyimod02_importers.py”, line 352, in exec_module File “ctypes__init__.py”, line 7, in ImportError: DLL load failed while importing _ctypes: The parameter is incorrect. [4648] Failed to execute script ‘esptool’ due to unhandled exception! exit status 1
Error compiling for board AI Thinker ESP32-CAM. Reply

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