Rust Esp32

September 8, 2023

For some time now, I have been meaning to get started with Esp32’s in earnest, and wanted an excuse to get started with Rust in something that was meaningful and embedded. I took the chance, and given the majority of my chips we esp32 v3.0, I had some hoops to get go through to get it working properly. Below should outline the steps I needed to take to get going with rust and this chip.

Ensure that the user has serial access to the usb devices, and potentially start a new shell to get this permission. You could always re-log
```
sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER
su - $USER
```
Install rust with rustup. This command does make it easier than relying on the package manager for versioning, since we need to use nightly anyway.
```
curl --proto '=https' --tlsv1.2 -sSf https://sh.rustup.rs | sh
```

Following the esp-rs guide, install and run the project start helper tool. Use the prompts to configure, mainly setting the target.

cargo install cargo-generate espflash cargo-espflash ldproxy espup
cd intro
cargo generate https://github.com/esp-rs/esp-idf-template cargo

Edit .cargo/config.toml to match

[env]
# ...
ESP_IDF_TOOLS_INSTALL_DIR = { value = "global" } # add this line

and rust-toolchain.toml to have channel = to $(rustup default | awk '{ print $1 }')

[toolchain]

channel = "nightly-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu"

Install the rust toolchain for needed target by running espup
```
espup install
```
This creates a script export-esp.sh which is needed to export the correct path for clang etc.
```
. ./export-esp.sh
```
Unless I have missed something, this should have been enough to flash. Ensure that the device is connected, then
```
cargo +esp run
```
This will erase and flash the device. With the default generated code, it should end with
```
I (436) <<project name>>: Hello, world!
```
at which point, you’re good to go!

I hope this saves someone some time getting started with a basic esp32 like me. If I have missed anything and notice, I will update this, but if you notice it first please contact me or submit a PR with the changes!