Hi,

It really looks like something between the Espressif’s OpenOCD port and the chip. We are not affiliated with Espressif and do not have insights into their chips or tools beyond their official documentation.

If you suspect VisualGDB is using OpenOCD incorrectly, you can always try running the binaries from Espressif manually. If they also don’t work, please contact Espressif for further help. If they do work, please try comparing the command lines between the working and broken setup. If you can point out a specific difference causing the issue, we can gladly investigate it further.

That said, we have recently updated our OpenOCD package to match the latest release from Espressif. Please try installing it via VisualGDB Package Manager. It may contain a fix for this specific issue.

We have just rechecked the settings testing GUI. OpenOCD indeed shows the “Error on socket” message (because VisualGDB closes the socket abruptly after confirming that it works) , but VisualGDB still shows the correct “Connection test succeeded” message. If you actually get an error message box instead, please feel free to attach a screenshot and we will investigate.

As for idf.py erase-flash, it is really something to check with Espressif. The idf.py file and all logic inside it comes from them. We don’t touch it, we don’t run any comprehensive tests on it beyond checking for unsatisfied dependencies, and rely on Espressif to fix issues in it.

You can try installing ESP-IDF 5.2 into the IDF 5.1 toolchain via the first page of VisualGDB Project Properties. Based on some quick tests, it is compatible with that toolchain, and might include some additional fixes.