Managing Side by Side Tool Chains

[dedvalson]

Hi,

I am using VisualGDB with ESP32 / ESP-IDF.  I have different projects that need different tool chains. So I use the side by side installation. The problem I have is that when I install a tool chain side by side with an older one, the older one disappears from VisualGDB. It is clearly still sitting there but VisualGDB can’t find it anymore. I generally end up downloading it again, but then the first one disappears.

So this is probably something obvious that I am missing, but can you tell me where the “list” of known tool chains is stored or how I might convince VisualGDB to recognize additional toolchains.

Thanks,

Don

 

[dedvalson]

Oh, on a somewhat related issue, I can’t find EPS32 tool chain 8.4.0/8.1.0/r1 in the VisualGDB Package manager. I have several projects using it that I don’t really want to update. Is it still available somewhere?

[support]

Hi,

It looks like your technical support period has expired. We would be happy to help you, however we would kindly ask you to renew your technical support on the following page first: https://sysprogs.com/splm/mykey​

[dedvalson]

Support Renewed.

[support]

Thanks for renewing your support. The logic used by VisualGDB to automatically find installed toolchains indeed only counts the GCC/GDB versions, since the revision number (e.g. R2) for all regular toolchains refers to bugfix releases the fully supersede the older ones.

ESP32 toolchains are an exception from this – Espressif often releases minor toolchain patches that keep the same GCC/GDB version numbers, but change the functionality in subtle ways, affecting compatibility with different ESP-IDF versions.

That said, the workaround for this is very straight-forward: simply select “locate the toolchain manually” in the toolchain selector drop-down, and point VisualGDB to the corresponding toolchain.xml file. It will allow having multiple toolchains with the same version, only differing in the revision number.

Regarding the 8.4.0/8.1.0/r1 toolchain, due to the large size of the ESP32 toolchains, we usually remove the versions that get superseded by the newer releases (i.e. have the same ESP-IDF versions as the previous one, and only introduce bugfixes) and the versions older than a couple of years. You can find the full list of available toolchains here: https://gnutoolchains.com/esp32/. If you are planning to use a certain toolchain version for longer than a couple of years, we strongly advise making backups of the installer on your side.

[dedvalson]

Hi,

The choice  “locate the toolchain manually”  does not appear to exist.

I have

• “Select a third party toolchain by locating gdb.exe,
• “Locate an IAR/Keil/CXSTM8 compiler installation”
• “Download more Toolchains…”

What am I missing?

[support]

The first option should work. You can switch the filter from gdb.exe to toolchain.xml in the bottom right corner of the “open file” dialog.

[Author]

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