Finally Working : ESP32 debugging on a Mac (with esp-wrover-kit)

Advanced Solutions Debugging
1

It took me some hours (better day) to make it work,
But finally I got it working:

ESP32 debugging in PlatformIO in Visual Studio Code on my Mac (with the esp-wrover-kit)

This is my platform.ini file:

[env:esp-wrover-kit]
; platform = espressif32 ;as of 5.8.2018 this is not yet integrated in the PIO release version
platform = GitHub - platformio/platform-espressif32: Espressif 32: development platform for PlatformIO

framework = arduino
board = esp-wrover-kit
monitor_speed = 115200
upload_port = /dev/cu.usbserial-14601

debug_tool = ftdi

SideNotes:
A “LIBUSB_ERROR_ACCESS” while initialising the FTDI drove me nuts:
Error: libusb_claim_interface() failed with LIBUSB_ERROR_ACCESS
Error: unable to open ftdi device with vid 0403, pid 6010, description ‘’ and serial '’

There a many useless explanations about loading & unloading Apple & FTDI serial drivers…

The solution was to UNISTALL (yes: remove!) the FTDI driver on MacOS 10.13.X (High Sierra)

cd /Library/Extensions
sudo rm -r FTDIUSBSerialDriver.kext

This hints helped a lot:
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9sc72x59cQ
- and the “FTDI Drivers Installation Guide for MAC OSX” page 16

Thanks @ the PlatformIO team
I hope this will help others as well,

AJ

2

Thank you so much! We have just updated our docs. See “Drivers” in FTDI Chip — PlatformIO latest documentation

3

I run in the same problem, i’ve done exactly as you did, removed the file as root and reboot but i get the same error again. Lost so much time already, does somebody has an idea ?

4

So which Mac OS version are you using?

5

im using macos 10.14

6

So you have tried with both the MacOS supplied driver and the FTDTI supplied driver and the behaviour is the same?

7

yes exactly, i tried both

8

Same for me I use 10.14.3

regards,
rob

10

Debugging does work on my Mac (10.14.4 Mojave) using the information in the original post (although now simply platform = espressif32 is sufficient). Be sure to put jumpers across the four JTAG-enable pin pairs as described in the ESP32-WROVER-KIT Getting Started Guide (https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-idf/en/latest/get-started/get-started-wrover-kit.html). Make sure the FTDI vendor-supplied drivers are not installed and just reply on the Apple built-in driver, and look for the correct value in /dev/cu.usbserial-???.

I spent a lot of time trying to get this working because I’d missed the step about installing the JTAG-enable jumpers and ended up writing a script to prevent mapping of the first FTDI interface to a serial /dev entry. It’s actually not necessary to use it but in case it’s useful to someone it can be found here: Script to prevent loading of the Apple USB FTDI interface 0 driver on Mac OS X · GitHub

1 Like
11

This worked precisely once for me after deleting the FTDI driver, but then never again. Can anyone suggest what I might be doing wrong?

It’s a WROVER-KIT as delivered but with the four JTAG jumpers connected. It worked the very first time, I could single-step code, but then never have been able to restart the debugger. From a fresh boot, the output is:

Reading symbols from firmware.elf…
done.
PlatformIO Unified Debugger > Redirecting...
PlatformIO: Initializing remote target…
Open On-Chip Debugger v0.10.0-esp32-20190313 (2019-03-13-09:59)
Licensed under GNU GPL v2
For bug reports, read
OpenOCD: Bug Reporting
none separate
adapter speed: 20000 kHz
Info : Configured 2 cores
esp32 interrupt mask on
Info : tcl server disabled
Info : telnet server disabled
Info : ftdi: if you experience problems at higher adapter clocks, try the command “ftdi_tdo_sample_edge falling”
Info : clock speed 20000 kHz
Error: JTAG scan chain interrogation failed: all zeroes
Error: Check JTAG interface, timings, target power, etc.
Error: Trying to use configured scan chain anyway…
Error: esp32.cpu0: IR capture error; saw 0x1f not 0x01
Warn : Bypassing JTAG setup events due to errors
Info : accepting ‘gdb’ connection from pipe
Error: No symbols for FreeRTOS
Error: Target not examined yet

Error: Target not halted
Error: auto_probe failed
Error: Connect failed. Consider setting up a gdb-attach event for the target to prepare target for GDB connect, or use ‘gdb_memory_map disable’.
Error: attempted ‘gdb’ connection rejected
Ignoring packet error, continuing…
warning: unrecognized item “timeout” in “qSupported” response

12

Could you try to reconnect device from USB and reflash with any “blink” firmware? Try debugging now.