No Stub option added to esptool Visual Studio Code extension

[DavesCodeMusings]

If you happen to use the ESPTool Visual Studio Code extension for point-and-click erasing, flashing, etc. of your ESP32 devices from within VS Code, there is a new option in the latest release.

In the extension's configuration you will now find a checkbox for using --no-stub with all esptool commands run by the extension (e.g. python3 -m esptool --no-stub chip-id).

This works around a problem with Debian-based Linux systems that lack the proper stub files for ESP devices. Probably won't make any difference on Windoze systems.

If you don't see the checkbox option right away after updating the extension, restart your VS Code and look again.

[Josverl]

I do not see any relevance of your apparent distaste for a specific OS to this post's topic as it seems to offer a specific workaround for an (likely intentional) omission in another OS.

[DavesCodeMusings]

I use both Win 11 and Ubuntu 26.04 desktop. The work around doesn't make a difference on Win 11, because it's not needed. Check the option or not, it won't make a difference. The problem is only with the Debian-based packages installed with apt as far as I can tell.

[scruss]

Debian/Ubuntu is still packaging esptool 4.7 from late 2023. Installing via pipx gets you the current version.

[projectgus]

@DavesCodeMusings it's of course up to you how you choose to develop this extension, but out of curiosity: could you install esptool as part of the extension itself? That way you'd solve this kind of problem, but also avoid problems with version incompatibilities between whatever esptool version is installed on the host and the version that the extension is expecting to interact with.

[DavesCodeMusings]

I'm not sure if it's possible for an extension to do that. And if it is, I'd think it would be risky.