[support]

Hi,

Sorry for the delay, the Espressif toolchain has a few rough corners we had to investigate before publishing the integration instructions.

First of all, please try this build: http://sysprogs.com/files/tmp/VisualGDB-5.4.3.2263.msi

Then follow the instructions below to integrate the Espressif’s toolchain:

1. Unpack the toochain to an arbitrary directory on your machine and create a toolchain.xml file there with the following contents:

   <?xml version="1.0"?>
   <Toolchain xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance" xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
    <ToolchainName>ESP32</ToolchainName>
    <ToolchainType>Embedded</ToolchainType>
    <PathDetectionKeyStrip>0</PathDetectionKeyStrip>
    <GNUTargetID>xtensa-esp32-elf</GNUTargetID>
    <BuiltInBSPs>
    <string>esp32-bsp</string>
    </BuiltInBSPs>
    <ToolchainID>com.visualgdb.xtensa-esp32-elf.external</ToolchainID>
    <BinaryDirectory>opt\xtensa-esp32-elf\bin</BinaryDirectory>
    <Prefix>xtensa-esp32-elf-</Prefix>
    <Make>make.exe</Make>
    <IsCygwinBased>true</IsCygwinBased>
    <GCCVersion>5.2.0</GCCVersion>
    <GDBVersion>7.10</GDBVersion>
    <LIBCVersion></LIBCVersion>
    <BinutilsVersion>2.25</BinutilsVersion>
    <Revision>1</Revision>
    <MinimumEngineVersion>5.4</MinimumEngineVersion>
    <Comments>ESP-IDF 3.0</Comments>
   </Toolchain>

2. Copy the IDFCheckouts.xml file from our toolchain directory to the Espressif toolchain directory. This will ensure VisualGDB can find the esp-idf checkouts.
3. Copy the esp32-bsp directory from our toolchain to the Espressif toolchain directory. This will get the debugging plugin to be recognized.
4. Do not copy the esp-idf\v3.0 folder from our toolchain. Instead, create a recursive checkout of the Espressif repository manually using git from their toolchain. The 2 toolchains use different set of libraries and copying an existing checkout with prebuilt files will prevent the build from completing correctly. Also due to differences between the way git is installed in 2 toolchains, our ESP-IDF checkout manager won’t be able to use the git executable from the Espressif toolchain.
5. Open the ESP-IDF project wizard. On the toolchain page select “find a toolchain by locating gdb.exe”, then change the filter from “*gdb.exe” to “toolchain.xml” and point to the toolchain.xml file in your toolchain. This will add it to the VisualGDB toolchain list.
6. Create the project.
7. Open the VisualGDB Project Properties and change the path style from /cygdrive/xxx to MinGW (/c/xxx).

Now you should be able to build and debug the project as expected. Advanced functionality like opening the Cygwin shell might still not work though due to differences between toolchains.

Hope this helps. Let us know if you run into any problems or need further details.

[support]

Hi,

Sorry, we don’t have a specific deadline for this yet. The new SDK appears to merge the IoT functionality into the mainline SDK, so it might require extra effort on our side to ensure everything works smooth together. We will post an update on the forum once the new release is available though.

[support]

Hi,

Most likely this service was added after our major internal update, so it did not get picked up automatically by the BSP generator. As a workaround, please try adding the corresponding .c file to the project manually.

We might be able to address it in the upcoming SDK 15.0 update, although we cannot promise any specific deadlines for it yet.

[support]

Hi,

This code looks totally OK from the gcc standpoint. If might not compile if the header defining U8 is not included, but otherwise it should work.

Please feel free to attach the exact error message you get so that we could give you better advice.

[support]

Hi,

If you are using the Custom edition, you can use the Build Customization page of VisualGDB Project Properties to add steps for deploying custom binaries after build (or Debug Customization page to deploy them before debugging).

[support]

Hi,

Thanks for the suggestion. We will monitor the future development of the TrueStudio and will consider importing projects from it if ST keeps on maintaining and supporting it.

[support]

Hi,

No problem, we have resent the confirmation email. Please check your inbox.

[support]

Hi,

Please let us know the email address associated with your license key so that we could check your support status.

[support]

Hi,

According to our records, the confirmation was sent to the email associated with your forum login. Please double-check your spam folder. As Avangate (our payment processor) has recently rebranded to 2Checkout, your previous email sorting rules may not work properly.

[support]

Hi,

It looks like your project relies on some functionality that is not present in our toolchain. The only known workaround to this would be to try downloading a toolchain from a different source (there are a few independent MinGW builds available online) or switching to Cygwin that is actively maintained, patched and is fully supported by VisualGDB.

[support]

Hi,

OK, no problem, if we could reproduce this, we should be able to fix it or suggest a better workaround. Please let us know if you are using MSBuild or GNU Make (if you could send us a sample project demonstrating the issue, it would be the best).

[support]

Hi,

Thanks for the detailed description, it indeed explains what is going on, so we will try to suggest a good workaround.

The advanced ESP-IDF subsystem works by running the ESP-IDF build command in a special “dry run” mode where it simply prints the gcc command lines that would be used during the build (it still generates config files and a few others). This works for the regular ESP-IDF projects, however it appears to be breaking the custom component you imported.

The easiest fix would be to simply copy the mkespfsimage binary from the actual build directory to the equivalent path under VisualGDBCache/EmbeddedProject12-Debug/CodeSenseDir and then reload the project. It should unblock the ESP-IDF build logic and VisualGDB will be able to pick up the project structure from it. Another option would be to remove the ‘-n -k’ arguments from the build command line you mentioned and rerun it manually. This should build the necessary files automatically and let VisualGDB load the project.

Also if you could point us to the specific version of the library that is causing the issue, we might be able to add a better workaround.

[support]

Hi,

Yes, we are planning to release another toolchain update as we are adding support for the new CMake-based ESP-IDF. If the “-mfix-esp32-psram-cache-issue” is included in the mainline ESP32 toolchain sources, it will get automatically picked up during the update.

We can also help you integrate the original ESP32 toolchain into VisualGDB if you could let us know the email associated with your license key so that we could verify your support status.

[support]

Sorry, the AssignProcessToJobObject error looks like something happening inside the toolchain’s gdb and it outside VisualGDB’s control, so the only way to diagnose it would be to check with the toolchain vendor. Other than that, importing of 3rd-party toolchains via the CustomToolchain mechanism is fully supported.

We are not aware of the bug with switching the toolchains; if you decide to renew your support, please let us know how to reproduce it and we will investigate/fix it.

[support]

Hi,

Building with VS should actually work (as in produce the relevant error message). The ESP-IDF projects work differently from the regular VS projects – instead of storing a redundant copy of the project structure in the .vcxproj file, they query the up-to-date structure directly from ESP-IDF and render it in the Solution Explorer. Hence if the ESP-IDF is not able to configure and produce a list of the built files, VisualGDB won’t be able to show anything in Solution Explorer, although it will still be able to kick off the build command.

Once you resolve the build errors (just the ones in the build scripts, errors in source files won’t affect anything), VisualGDB will load the project structure and let you use the convenient GUI to manage it.

[Author]

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