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ESP32 Environment Setup

Updated 2026-01-07About 17 min read

1.Linux

Open the following website, https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/zh_CN/stable/esp32/get-started/linux-macos-setup.html

1.1.Install dependencies

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First step, follow what is shown on this website; if you are using Ubuntu

sudo apt-get install git wget flex bison gperf python3 python3-pip python3-venv cmake ninja-build ccache libffi-dev libssl-dev dfu-util libusb-1.0-0

If you are using Fedora

sudo dnf -y makecache && sudo dnf install git wget flex bison gperf python3 python3-setuptools cmake ninja-build ccache dfu-util libusbx

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1.2.Get ESP-IDF

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Check which version is currently the latest stable release

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As shown in the figure above, this is version 5.5.2. Next, select a folder where you want to store the firmware. For example, I want to place it in the /home/tungchiahui/UserFolder/Applications/ folder (where /home/tungchiahui can be used~/ instead) Then

cd ~/UserFolder/Applications
mkdir -p ./esp
cd ./esp
# 记得版本号要改成最新稳定版(网络环境一定要好)
git clone -b v5.5.2 --recursive https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git

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The image is what success looks like; anything different from the following means the download was unsuccessful. alt text

1.3.Setup Tool

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cd ./esp-idf
# 选择国内服务器
export IDF_GITHUB_ASSETS="dl.espressif.cn/github_assets"
./install.sh all

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The image above shows what success looks like. Here, you need to copy what I have circled in red (export.shpath), which will be used in the next environment configuration step. For example, the path I copied here is ~/UserFolder/Applications/esp/esp-idf/export.sh

1.4.Set environment variables

At this point, the tools that have just been installed have not yet been added to the PATH environment variable, so they cannot be used through the "Command Prompt." Therefore, some environment variables must be set. This can be done through another script provided by ESP-IDF.

vim ~/.bashrc

Add the following line (here you need to fill in your specific storage path, that is, the path string you just copied; remember to change the~to a $HOMEto increase robustness)

alias get_idf='. $HOME/UserFolder/Applications/esp/esp-idf/export.sh'

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source ~/.bashrc

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1.5.Configure VSCode

https://docs.espressif.com/projects/vscode-esp-idf-extension/zh_CN/latest/index.html

Install the ESP-IDF plugin

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Click Express and choose a download server:

Click as shown in the figure. Since we have already configured the environment, do not select a version here; directly choose to locate it from my computer ESP-IDF

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It will automatically help you complete all toolchains

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If it displays like this in the lower-right corner, it is successful.

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Next, configure openOCD: alt text Copy the line above, open a terminal (any terminal will do, no need to worry about the path), and run it

sudo cp --update=none /home/tungchiahui/.espressif/tools/openocd-esp32/v0.12.0-esp32-20250707/openocd-esp32/share/openocd/contrib/60-openocd.rules /etc/udev/rules.d

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Finished!

2.Windows

Open the following website, https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/zh_CN/stable/esp32/get-started/windows-setup.html

2.1.Download the installer

Check the current latest version, for example, my latest version here is v5.5.2 alt text

Click the tool to download alt text

and click to install the latest version, for example, here the latest version is v5.5.2

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2.2.Install ESP-IDF

Click the downloaded esp-idf alt text

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Select the hard disk partition where you want to install. For example, if I want to install it onC:\Espressif，那就是如下图这样。 alt text 如果你想安装在D盘，就把第一个C改成D。