There are different firmwares that you can use to program the ESP32 and ESP8266 boards. If you want to program the ESP32 or ESP8266 board using the MicroPython firmware, we recommend using uPyCraft IDE. uPyCraft IDE runs in any major operating system. In this tutorial we’ll show you how to install the uPyCraft IDE for MicroPython on a computer with Linux Ubuntu 16.04.
If you’re using a different operating system, make sure you follow the right guide:
After installing uPyCraft IDE in your computer, we recommend reading: Getting Started with MicroPython on ESP32 and ESP8266.
Installing Python 3.X – Linux Ubuntu
Before installing the uPyCraft IDE, make sure you have Python 3.X installed in your computer. If you don’t, follow the next instructions to install Python 3.X. Run this command to install Python 3 and pip:
$ sudo apt install python3 python3-pip
Installing uPyCraft IDE – Linux Ubuntu 16.04
As mentioned before, for this tutorial we’ll be using uPyCraft IDE to program the ESP32 or ESP8266 boards using the MicroPython firmware. In our opinion, uPyCraft IDE is the easiest way of programming ESP based boards with MicroPython at the moment.
You can learn more about uPyCraft IDE on their GitHub repository or explore the uPyCraft IDE source code.
IMPORTANT: at the time of writing this guide, uPyCraft IDE is only tested on Linux Ubuntu 16.04. If you want to run it on a different Ubuntu version or Linux distribution, we recommend using uPyCraft IDE source code and compile the software yourself.
Downloading uPyCraft IDE for Linux Ubuntu 16.04
Click here to download uPyCraft IDE for Linux Ubuntu 16.04 or go to this link https://randomnerdtutorials.com/uPyCraftLinux.
Open your Terminal window, navigate to your Downloads folder and list all the files:
$ cd Downloads $ ls -l uPyCraft_linux_V1.X
You should have a similar file (uPyCraft_linux_V1.X) in your Downloads folder. You need to make that file executable with the following command:
$ chmod +x uPyCraft_linux_V1.X
Then, to open/run the uPyCraft IDE software, type the next command:
$ ./uPyCraft_linux_V1.X
We’ll be using this software to flash our ESP based boards with MicroPython firmware as well as to program the boards.
Follow the next tutorial to flash your ESP boards with the MicroPyhton firmware:
Wrapping Up
We hope you’ve found this tutorial useful. This is a quick guide that shows how to install uPyCraft IDE on Linux Ubuntu. If you have a different operating system, read one of the following guides:
gndtovcc.home.blog 
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