Rust development for the ESP32

Short description on how to install the tools for Rust development for the ESP32 on the badge

Tools installation

  • Rust toolchain from https://github.com/esp-rs/rust-build. Follow the instructions given there.
  • If you get an error concerning virtualenv try uninstalling via pip and reinstalling via apt or vice versa …
  • Install cargo-generate (cargo install cargo-generate). If this fails, try just running: rustup update
  • Install the mch2022 webusb tools

Project workflow

  • Create a new project as follows:
$ cargo generate --git https://github.com/esp-rs/esp-idf-template cargo
🤷   Project Name : argh
🔧   Destination: /MCH2022/rust-build/rust-esp/argh ...
🔧   Generating template ...
✔ 🤷   STD support · true
✔ 🤷   MCU · esp32
? 🤷   ESP-IDF native build version (v4.3.2 = previous stable, v4.4 = stable, mainline = UNSTA✔ 🤷   ESP-IDF native build version (v4.3.2 = previous stable, v4.4 = stable, mainline = UNSTABLE) · v4.4
? 🤷   Configure project to use Dev Containers (VS Code, GitHub Codespaces and Gitpod)? (bewar✔ 🤷   Configure project to use Dev Containers (VS Code, GitHub Codespaces and Gitpod)? (beware: Dev Containers not available for esp-idf v4.3.2) · false
[ 1/10]   Done: .cargo/config.toml
[ 2/10]   Done: .cargo
[ 3/10]   Done: .gitignore
[ 4/10]   Done: .vscode
[ 5/10]   Done: Cargo.toml
[ 6/10]   Done: build.rs
[ 7/10]   Done: rust-toolchain.toml
[ 8/10]   Done: sdkconfig.defaults
[ 9/10]   Done: src/main.rs
[10/10]   Done: src
🔧   Moving generated files into: `/MCH2022/rust-build/rust-esp/argh`...
💡   Initializing a fresh Git repository
✨   Done! New project created /MCH2022/rust-build/rust-esp/argh

$ cd argh
  • Generate an app image using:
# Tell Rust which toolchain to use (you only need to do this once ...)
$ rustup override set esp
info: override toolchain for '/home/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/projects/MCH2022/rust-build/rust-esp/argh' set to 'esp'

# set some environment variables, so rust knows where to find its tools:
# you will probably want to save this in a little 'source' scriptlet ...
export PATH="/home/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32-elf-gcc/8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/:/home/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s2-elf-gcc/8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/:/home/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32s3-elf-gcc/8_4_0-esp-2021r2-patch3-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/bin/:$PATH"
export LIBCLANG_PATH="/home/<YOUR_USER_NAME>/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp32-elf-clang/esp-14.0.0-20220415-x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu/lib/"


# finally, build the image ...
$ cargo espflash save-image ESP32 rust_esp.img                     
    Updating crates.io index      
  Downloaded filetime v0.2.17     
  Downloaded env_logger v0.9.0
  Downloaded libloading v0.7.3
	... literally download the _entire_ entire internet ...
	...
	... argh
	...
  • Upload the image using web USB:
$ webusb_push.py --run rust rust_esp.img

A more elaborate example.

You can find a more elaborate example that drives the display a shows a nice rust screensaver in The Hatchery and on github.

I’ve been told there is some magic involved to grab control of the screen

Rust Graphics

Limitations

These instructions use the esp-idf as provided by Espressif so you won’t have access to the components added by the Badge.team. It’s probably possible to use the version provided by the Badge.team, but I have not tried this.

Also: this seems to work on some computers and not on others … Please feel free to provide a PR to the documentation or a link to a sample app … Make sure you’re using the newest version of everything. Throw away your computer and by a Windows one …

Last modified April 23, 2024: Merge pull request #115 from pitastrudl/update_cd (fab7e54)