ESP32 Toolchains and Compatible ESP-IDF Releases

This page provides an up-to-date list of ESP32 toolchains compatible with VisualGDB, and the ESP-IDF versions that have been tested against these toolchains.

WARNING: The ESP32 tool ecosystem is relatively fragile, compared to other architectures. Almost every ESP-IDF release will only work with with a specific range of toolchains. To simplify your ESP32 development workflow, we offer ready-to-use combinations of ESP-IDF and toolchains that have been tested together.

GCC GDB ESP-IDF Versions Devices Minimum VisualGDB Build Download link
13.2.0 14.2 VisualGDB 5.6.109 esp32-gcc13.2.0-r2.exe
13.2.0 12.1 5.2 ESP32/S2/S3/C2/C3/C6/H2 VisualGDB 5.6.109 esp32-gcc13.2.0.exe
12.2.0 12.1 5.1 ESP32/S2/S3/C2/C3/C6/H2 VisualGDB 5.6.109 esp32-gcc12.2.0.exe
11.2.0 9.2.90 5.0 ESP32/S2/S3/C2/C3/H2 VisualGDB 5.6.109 esp32-gcc11.2.0-r2.exe
8.4.0 9.2.90 4.4.3 ESP32/S2/S3/C2/C3/H2 VisualGDB 5.6.109 esp32-gcc8.4.0-r10.exe
8.4.0 8.1.0 4.4.1 ESP32; ESP32-S2/S3/C3/H2 VisualGDB 5.5.8 esp32-gcc8.4.0-r9.exe
8.4.0 8.1.0 4.3.2, 4.4 ESP32; ESP32-S2/S3/C3 VisualGDB 5.5.8 esp32-gcc8.4.0-r8.exe
8.4.0 8.1.0 4.3.1 ESP32; ESP32-S2/S3/C3 VisualGDB 5.5.8 esp32-gcc8.4.0-r6.exe
8.4.0 8.1.0 4.2.2, 4.3 ESP32; ESP32-S2/S3/C3 VisualGDB 5.5.8 esp32-gcc8.4.0-r3.exe
8.2.0 8.1.0 4.1, 4.2 (pre-release) ESP32; ESP32-S2 VisualGDB 5.5.8 esp32-gcc8.2.0-r7.exe
8.2.0 8.1.0 4.0, 4.1 ESP32 VisualGDB 5.5.5 esp32-gcc8.2.0-r3.exe
8.2.0 8.1.0 4.0 ESP32 VisualGDB 5.5 esp32-gcc8.2.0-r2.exe
5.2.0 7.10 3.3 ESP32 VisualGDB 5.5 esp32-gcc5.2.0-r17.exe

You can find out the VisualGDB version you are using via Help->About VisualGDB.

If you still cannot build your project, please try the following:

  1. Install the latest VisualGDB build.
  2. Reset your ESP-IDF environment as shown on this page.
  3. Reset your Python environment.
  4. Try creating a new project from scratch. If the new project builds, try cleaning the old project and building it again. If a full rebuild doesn't help either, the project may not be compatible with the ESP-IDF release you are using.