smolOS - ESP8266 Installation Guide

Prequisite

Do this once.

$ python3 -m venv venv
$ source venv/bin/activate
$ pip install esp-tool adafruit-ampy

Flashing MicroPython on ESP8266

Remember to ground PIN 0 for flash mode. I've added a push button to the UART-to-USB dongle for that. I then push it while plugging in.

Get the latest firmware from MicroPython Download Page for ESP8266 1MB. That's the chip I got.

In the time of writing this was the latest file: esp8266-1m-20230426-v1.20.0.bin.

As super user.

$ su
$ esptool.py chip_id
$ esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 erase_flash
$ esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 --baud 115200 write_flash --flash_size=detect -fm dout 0 esp8266-1m-20230426-v1.20.0.bin

Install smolOS