[Feature Request]: Flash via JTAG _without_ serial (VSC-1575)

[karlp]

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I have a board that has only a jtag header. (2x5pin, I'm not talking about Using command line tools, I can flash and debug, using openocd, and "mon program_esp ...."
However, if I try and flash in vscode, it always attempts to open a serial port with esptool. This is despite having "flash method JTAG" set ("idf.flashType": "JTAG")

It seems that #183 really only applies to flashing via the built in usb-jtag? at least, it certainly doesn't seem to help

It's perhaps demonstrated by this diagram: https://docs.espressif.com/projects/vscode-esp-idf-extension/en/latest/debugproject.html#debugging-process-overview where it shows that flashing is always via the uart.

I very much want to avoid having to use a second cable, just for vscode.

Describe alternatives you've considered
Adding a serial connection jsut for flashing does work, but... seriously?

I've tried using the explist tasks "ESP-IDF:Flash (with jtag)" option as well, both with and without openocd started before hand.

Additional context
maybe I'm just missing how to configure this?

I'm not very good at reading typescript, but it almost appears as if the jtag code got detached somewhere. flashcmd.ts will error if a port isn't set, and in flashtask, https://github.com/espressif/vscode-esp-idf-extension/blob/master/src/flash/flashTask.ts#L111-L119 it seems to just... not handle the jtag case?

My openocd.cfg file

source [find interface/cmsis-dap.cfg]
adapter speed 8000
transport select jtag
bindto 0.0.0.0
set ESP32_FLASH_VOLTAGE 3.3
# Source the ESP32 configuration file
source [find target/esp32.cfg]

My settings.json

{
        "C_Cpp.intelliSenseEngine": "default",
        "idf.espIdfPath": "/home/karlp/src/esp-idf",
        "idf.toolsPath": "/home/karlp/tools/esp-idf",
        "idf.openOcdConfigs": [
                "openocd.cfg",
        ],
        "idf.openOcdDebugLevel": "3",
        "idf.flashType": "JTAG"
}

ESP-IDF plugin version: 1.9.0

[radurentea]

Hi @karlp,

Thanks for bringing this up to our attention. I've made a fix for this. Could you please test it to see if it solves the reported issue?

You can test these changes by installing this VSIX by click menu View -> Command Palette..., type Install from VSIX and then select downloaded esp-idf-extension.vsix file to install the extension.

• esp-idf-extension.vsix.zip

[karlp]

Will do! Thanks for looking at this so promptly!

[karlp]

That's working well to flash now thank you very much. It even makes F5 to launch and debug work now! This is an excellent improvement :)

I did run into an issue where my openocd.cfg file had the following lines

source [find interface/cmsis-dap.cfg]
adapter speed 8000
source [find target/esp32.cfg]

init
esp apptrace start file:///tmp/my-app-trace.log
echo ">KARL:  Remember: /tmp/my-app-trace.log has app trace!"

The init and apptrace lines had to be removed from the openocd.cfg that vscode was using. With those in place, you get a very cryptic error message and an empty dialog like this:

Just an FYI if you happen to see anyone else with that sort of problem, it's the "init" in their openocd.cfg file. Thank you very much for this new/restored functionality!

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