Arduino esp32 core cannot be used by other platform

[vroland]

Hardware:

Board: other
Core Installation version: 1.0.4/master
IDE name: Arduino IDE
Flash Frequency: -
PSRAM enabled: -
Upload Speed: -
Computer OS: All

Description:

I'd like to specify custom boards. According to the Arduino platform specification, I should be able to do refer to the esp32 platform for the build instructions (platform.txt) and only add additional board definitions (board.txt).
However, the platform.txt file of the arduino-esp32 core assumes {runtime.platform.path} its its own path instead of a derived platform. See also a similar issue with the esp8266 core: esp8266/Arduino#5769.
Would using {build.core.path}/../.. instead of {runtime.platform.path} be a possibility here?

Sketch: not relevant

[solartech77]

I want to build voltmeter using esp32 to display on my phone or a web browser?

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[STALE_SET] This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[settinger]

The inability to define custom boards is a real nuisance. Is the issue blocked by this bug in arduino-cli? arduino/arduino-cli#1031

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[JAndrassy]

The inability to define custom boards is a real nuisance. Is the issue blocked by this bug in arduino-cli? arduino/arduino-cli#1031

it is arduino/arduino-cli#1012

in classic Arduino IDE the upload is still done by the IDE, not by the CLI. and the IDE doesn't know the paths which should be used in the esp32 (and esp8266) upload tool location to support referencing platforms or custom boards..

in IDE 2.00 custom boards definitions are not supported yet.

[settinger]

in classic Arduino IDE the upload is still done by the IDE, not by the CLI. and the IDE doesn't know the paths which should be used in the esp32 (and esp8266) upload tool location to support referencing platforms or custom boards..

Thank you for the info! I am unclear why, in issue esp8266/Arduino#5769 , your PR was not sufficient. Specifically:

the solution was to use {build.core.path}/../.. instead of {runtime.platform.path} but in git version not all platform.txt keys can work with {build.core.path}.

I'm not sure what git version means here, or how it can trip up on certain platform.txt keys. Does the same issue affect the ESP32 platform.txt?

---

In case anyone else comes here looking for a workaround, here is how I have managed to add custom boards to the IDE boards menu. Tested with Arduino IDE v1.8.13 on Windows 10.

1. Ensure the ESP32-arduino platform is installed: https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/blob/master/docs/arduino-ide/boards_manager.md
2. Locate the ESP32 platform in the Arduino installation folder. In my case it was located at C:/Users/{name}/AppData/Local/Arduino15/packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/1.0.6.
3. Create a new folder for your platform in the Arduino sketches folder as Hardware/{your platform name}/esp32/.
4. Create your boards.txt file in your platform folder. Be sure to set the following lines to reference the ESP32 platform: {your board}.upload.tool=esp32:esptool_py, {your board}.build.core=esp32:esp32. If you are reusing an existing variant's pinout, set the variant as {your board}.build.variant=esp32:{variant}. If you are not reusing an existing variant's pinout, you will need to define them in your platform folder as variants/{your variant}/pins_arduino.h.
5. Copy platform.txt from the ESP32 platform folder to your platform folder. Change the following lines:
   1. Change every instance of {runtime.platform.path} to {build.core.path}\..\... On Windows it is necessary to use backslashes, not forward slashes, or else recipe.hooks.prebuild.2.pattern.windows will fail.
   2. Change the line name=ESP32 Arduino to your platform name.
6. I have not figured out a way to change the arguments in tools.esptool_py.upload.pattern. Therefore, copy the folders tools/sdk/bin and tools/partitions from the ESP32 platform folder to your platform folder. If you know which bootloader binaries and partition files you need, you can delete the unnecessary ones; if you're unsure, don't delete any of the folder contents.
7. Restart the Arduino IDE.

At that point, I was able to select my custom boards in the IDE board manager, compile, and upload without trouble. I hope someone finds this helpful.

[JAndrassy]

at the time of my PR in esp8266 Arduino, they changed to esptool.py in arduino15/packages/esp8266/hardware/esp8266/2.7.4/tools/esptool. until then the esptool.exe was installed in external tools folder (arduino15/packages/esp8266/tools). the esptool.py then couldn't be configured for referring platform as I proposed in the PR and I closed the PR.
esp32 arduino has esptool.py installed as external tool (arduino15/packages/esp32/tools/esptool_py) that is why your workaround works for USB upload, but not for OTA. espota.py is in the 'wrong' folder in esp32 and esp8266 arduino packages/esp32/hardware/esp32/1.0.4/tools

[stale]

[STALE_SET] This issue has been automatically marked as stale because it has not had recent activity. It will be closed in 14 days if no further activity occurs. Thank you for your contributions.

[JAndrassy]

it is still a valid issue

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[STALE_CLR] This issue has been removed from the stale queue. Please ensure activity to keep it openin the future.

[mrengineer7777]

Is this still a valid issue? What would it take to resolve it?

[JAndrassy]

Is this still a valid issue? What would it take to resolve it?

yes it is still valid.

The problem is that {runtime.platform.path} is evaluated to board platform so {runtime.platform.path}/tools doesn't work for referring package.
A solution is to use {build.core.path}/../../tools in platform.txt for the tools folder.
A clean solution would be to rename the tools folder to system and use {build.system.path} instead of {runtime.platform.path}/tools.

https://arduino.github.io/arduino-cli/0.31/platform-specification/#referencing-another-core-variant-or-tool

[egnor]

Is there any strong reason replacing {runtime.platform.path} with {build.core.path}/../.. wouldn't fix this? Would such a PR be accepted? Clearly it would be a version bump, and it would be incompatible with old versions of Arduino, but those versions are fairly old now I think? Or is there still an issue with tool execution?

[JAndrassy]

@egnor I think espota.py would not work at least in the IDE 1, because it is in tools and not installed as a tool
#4691 (comment)

[egnor]

And I take it IDE 1 compatibility is needed, even for arduino-esp32 3+?

[me-no-dev]

We get requests to support 32bit Windows and old Linux, so what is left for IDE1 :) We need to support it all, even in 3.0. There are works being done to streamline this and maybe in near future we will make things better, but not yet possible

[egnor]

OK I made a specific proposal to change arduino-cli (and thus the IDE) that SHOULD solve this problem without requiring any platforms sacrifice backward compatibility??