Updating existing projects to ESP-IDF 5.2

[gojimmypi]

I, too, had a tremendous difficulty in upgrading to the Espressif ESP-IDF v5.2 in VisualGDB.

What I didn’t know – was the problem was with the *project file* and not the toolchain install.

My final success was where I renamed my C:\SysGCC\esp32 to C:\SysGCC\esp32-12.4 and let the new toolchain install by default (not checking the side-by-side checkbox).

Even after the fresh install, still seeing the python errors at project configuration time, I tried to instead create a fresh example project. Success!

I then used winmerge to compare the project files between my existing to-be-upgraded project file and the freshly created one.

Only two changes needed: The toolchain GCC/GDB versions:

<ToolchainID>
<ID>com.visualgdb.xtensa-esp32-elf</ID>
<Version>
<GCC>13.2.0</GCC>
<GDB>12.1</GDB>
<Revision>1</Revision>
</Version>
</ToolchainID>

And the IDF Checkout Version and Subdirectory settings:

<ESPIDFExtension>
<IDFCheckout>
<Version>release/v5.2</Version>
<Subdirectory>esp-idf/v5.2</Subdirectory>
<Type>ESPIDF</Type>
</IDFCheckout>
<COMPort>COM19</COMPort>
<SuppressTestPrerequisiteChecks>false</SuppressTestPrerequisiteChecks>
<UseCCache>false</UseCCache>
<DeviceID>ESP32</DeviceID>
</ESPIDFExtension>

Upon making that change manually (and of course deleting sdkconfig file and the build directory)….  my existing VisualGDB project now works with the new ESP-IDF 5.2 toolchain.

Note there’s since been a 5.2.1 release from Espressif.

btw: I tried the side-by-side WITH the checkbox, and no directory rename… but that didn’t work for me. (although at this point, I’m not sure if it was the project file problem or not). I seem to recall an error at install time.

In any case, be sure to make a full backup of the C:\SysGCC directory.

[support]

Hi,

This issue is different from the other thread (hence, we moved it to a separate one) and comes down to a bug in the ESP-IDF selector. After updating the toolchain and refusing to download the old (incompatible) ESP-IDF, VisualGDB should normally have shown the old ESP-IDF version in Project Properties, letting you select the new one, but it was instead showing just the new one, despite still referencing the old version.

We have fixed the issue in this build: VisualGDB-6.0.101.5152.msi​. It actually includes 3 fixes:

• Suggests updating ESP-IDF reference to the one shipped with the new toolchain
• If refused, allows switching it manually via GUI
• When changed, clears the temporary files next time the project is loaded or built

[gojimmypi]

Aha! Great! Thanks for the update.

I should add this is also quite helpful for installing multiple versions of the ESP-IDF toolchain:

https://visualgdb.com/documentation/espidf/#toolchains

[Author]

Posts