New to ESP32 chips. But IDE Refuses to Compile! (error 255)

[pentius]

OK, I bought a pair of ESP32-D wroom circuit cards that fit into a “shield” with screw connectors like many relay modules. I’m running Ubuntu and the 2.1.1 version of the IDE. Watching and pausing a tutorial, I fought the battle to get the expressif batch in the board manager and found the nearest match being ESP32D Wroom and selected it.

Getting this far in my battle, 2/3 there, it was time to test out good ol’ Blink. Hit Upload and… The Error 255 crops up. It failed to compile so no upload attempt happened. (Another can o’ worms awaits?)

[sonofcy]

Error 255 doesn't tell us much, post the entire verbose error log here in code tags so we can find the real error.

[pert]

I moved your topic to an appropriate forum category @pentius.

In the future, when creating a topic please take some time to pick the forum category that best suits the subject of your topic. There is an "About the _____ category" topic at the top of each category that explains its purpose.

This is an important part of responsible forum usage, as explained in the "How to get the best out of this forum" guide. The guide contains a lot of other useful information. Please read it.

Thanks in advance for your cooperation.

[UKHeliBob]

Please post links to the hardware that you are using. Which version of the IDE are you using ?

[pentius]

I tried an experiment. Last night I fired up Amazon and got an UNO R4 WIFI to see what happens with a circuit card that’s a perfect match. Hook it up, fire up the IDE, line up Blink (and speed up the blinking action) and try it. Result? It failed to compile but with an Error 1 instead. To its credit it did find the card and port as expected/hoped, eliminating that variable.

[kmin]

If IDE fails to compile Blink to any board, your installation is probably f...d up.
You didn't answer the question about your IDE version above.
For your Esp board choose Esp32 Dev Module.

[UKHeliBob]

If you are going to get any help you need at least to post the full error message copied from the IDE

[sonofcy]

Error 1 is not the error we are looking for. Post the entire verbose error log in code tags.

[pentius]

This may or may not help others, but I just cracked it. All I did was to hit VERIFY first, let it compile then and only then hit UPLOAD and it uploaded just peachy. I tested out the Blink sketch then to, well, verify it, I modified the sketch by speeding up the blinking by 10X. Since the verify button tries the compile without the upload, I lined up the preferences to get ready to catch the verbose output but it happily worked.

The version of the IDE was downloaded just 2 days ago, 2.1.1 for Linux 64 bit on Intel/AMD silicon. I’m running Ubuntu on a generic Chinese mini form factor PC that I got during the epidemic for frighteningly cheap.

[UKHeliBob]

Where did you download the IDE from ?

I ask because the current version is 2.3.6 available from https://www.arduino.cc/en/software/

[pentius]

I got the 2.1.1 version from this website arduino.cc. Are you running Linux? Maybe the latest (2.3.6) was put up for Windows users, the most popular OS, but not yet compiled for Linux or otherwise ported.

So far, my methodical strategy is working. By using a perfect match compatible circuit card, I know the software works. Now, about those 2 el cheapo generic ESP32 cards…

[ptillisch]

Hi @pentius.

@pentius

I got the 2.1.1 version from this website arduino.cc.

Did you do that recently? Or some time ago? Arduino periodically releases new versions of Arduino IDE. So if you downloaded the IDE last year, then it is expected that you would have gotten an older version of the IDE. Conversely, if you download Arduino IDE right now, you will get the latest version: 2.3.6.

@pentius

Are you running Linux?

I use Linux. I downloaded Arduino IDE from the "Software" page recently and got version 2.3.6 as expected.

@pentius

Maybe the latest (2.3.6) was put up for Windows users, the most popular OS, but not yet compiled for Linux or otherwise ported.

That is not the case. Version 2.3.6 is available for download for all operating systems from the "Software" page:

https://www.arduino.cc/en/software/

[pentius]

I downloaded 2.3.6 on my box, unzipped it, and tried. The software choked. But the 2.1.1 version fires up perfect. Good thing I kept the 2.1.1 zip file. My Linux box has Ubuntu 18.04 and it’s a mini form factor generic Chinese box. When I tried 2.3.6 the last line in the shell said something about no sketches scheduled for deletion.

[ptillisch]

Due to a change GitHub made to the infrastructure we use to produce the Arduino IDE releases, 2.3.4 is the last version that has compatibility with Ubuntu 18.04:

https://forum.arduino.cc/t/arduino-ide-2-3-4-is-now-available/1329167#p-7972984-deprecation-notice-upcoming-cessation-of-support-for-linux-distros-using-glibc-228-1

@ptillisch

Deprecation notice: Upcoming cessation of support for Linux distros using glibc 2.28

Recent changes in the framework used to produce automated release of Arduino IDE resulted in the loss of compatibility of the Linux builds with older Linux distro versions that use version 2.28 of the GNU C Library (glibc) shared library. This includes Ubuntu 18.04. Arduino IDE 2.3.4 will be the last version that can be used with these distro versions.

Future releases (including nightly and tester builds) will fail to start on machines using these distro versions with an error like:

Error: node-loader:
Error: /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6: version `GLIBC_2.28' not found (required by /home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/native/pty.node)
    at 85467 (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:2766)
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:6663105)
    at 23571 (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:3374073)
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:6663105)
    at 55444 (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:3369761)
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:6663105)
    at 24290 (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:1780542)
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:6663105)
    at 43416 (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:1770138)
    at __webpack_require__ (/home/foo/arduino-ide/resources/app/lib/backend/main.js:2:6663105)

If you don't know which version of glibc your machine is using, run this from the terminal:

/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/libc.so.6

Further technical details are available here.

The recommended path forward is to update to a modern version of Linux. If you can't or won't do that, you can update to the last compatible version of Arduino IDE, 2.3.4, and then avoid updating when future releases (e.g., 2.3.5) come out. There are two methods for dealing with these update offers. I'll provide instructions for both of them. You can pick whichever one of the two is most convenient for you.

Ubuntu 18.04 is quite outdated.

If for some reason you won't or can't update your operating system, you can download Arduino IDE 2.3.4 from the links under the "Assets" section of the 2.3.4 release page on the Arduino IDE GitHub repository:

Release 2.3.4 · arduino/arduino-ide

[pentius]

Well, you answered that question. Now, about that generic ESP32 card, I have installed the espressif package 3.0.0 and tried a bunch of different cards and an Adafruit almost compiled,at least 9/10 of the way (more like 19/20ths) when it died. A python library of a particular version is missing. I was merely trying the good ol’ shotgun approach.But the Uno R4 Wifi card does work. I guess an update is in order.

[ptillisch]

@pentius

Now, about that generic ESP32 card, I have installed the espressif package 3.0.0 and tried a bunch of different cards and an Adafruit almost compiled,at least 9/10 of the way (more like 19/20ths) when it died. A python library of a particular version is missing. I was merely trying the good ol’ shotgun approach.

So you solved the compilation problem?

[pentius]

Not yet, not by a longshot. I fired up a different Linux box, but upgraded to 24.04 and tried the Arduino 2.3.6 and no dice. I nuked it and tried the Arduino2.1.1 and no dice again. A thing I found over time is that Linux boxes are like people. No two are EVER alike. It’s like they have their own personality, like people. Can you make an Uno R4 Wifi do the Matter protocol?