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Installation

We have to install 2 things:

  1. ESP-IDF: The framework we use for programming our ESP32.
  2. ESP-IDF VS Code Extension: To interact with ESP-IDF.

Install ESP-IDF

Espressif Systems provides a graphical tool called EIM (ESP-IDF Installation Manager) to install ESP-IDF. We have to install EIM first.

Install EIM

Click the link below to go to the official page to download EIM:

https://dl.espressif.com/dl/eim/

Make sure you are in the "Online Installer" tab. The exact file to download depends on your system:

  • Windows: Download eim-gui-windows-x64.exe. Run this installer to install EIM.
  • Linux x64 (Ubuntu): Download and install the .deb package (eim-gui-linux-x64.deb).

Install ESP-IDF using EIM

Now that we have installed EIM, let's install ESP-IDF using it.

  1. Open EIM.
  2. Under "New Installation" click "Start Installation".
  3. Under "Easy Installation", click "Start Easy Installation" to install the latest stable version of ESP-IDF with default settings.
  4. If there are no problems, you will see the "Ready to Install" page. Click "Start Installation".

Install ESP-IDF VS Code Extension

We use this extension as a high-level wrapper for ESP-IDF. Most times, we do not use ESP-IDF directly. For example, if we need to compile our source code, we ask the extension to do it, which uses the ESP-IDF we just installed internally to to compile the source code.

Install the extension named "ESP-IDF" by "Espressif Systems" in VS Code.

After installing, restart VS Code. You might get this notification:

No standard ESP-IDF project was found in this workspace. Do you want to activate the ESP-IDF extension anyway?

Click "Activate Anyway". This will activate the extension.

Verify installation

Use the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P to open the command palette (remember this shortcut, we are going to use it a lot). Inside the command palette, search ESP-IDF. You will see many entries which start with ESP-IDF:. Those commands are provided my the ESP-IDF extension. These commands are what we use for almost everything.

Test your knowledge

Each chapter ends with this section. The purpose is to solidify important things that you might need frequently in your memory using active recall.

How do we open the command palette?

Using the shortcut Ctrl + Shift + P.