ESP8266 Community Forum

This is along the lines of msg #48789 but didn't want to re-open
a year-old thread.

I'm programming an SFE ESP8266 module via FTDI232 with
Arduino 1.8.1 (and 1.6.4).

I've downloaded/installed the Arduino IDE support and 8266 core
from here and from igrr.me (installation was uneventful). Selecting
"Generic ESP8266 Device" and the "Blink" example, the upload
seems to go well. The indicator<s> stop at "[100]" (complete). When
I let GPIO0 float and reboot the device I get jibberish from the serial port
(previously I could enter "AT" commands and get good results).

I never get a "complete" indicator (from #48789 I've learned not to
expect a "verify" indicator/message) at the end of uploading.

Attached is the IDE output for the upload segment.

I'm new to this SoC, and am stumped as to what I might be
doing wrong, and how to recover from a programmable
(but ?corrupted?) 8266.

If you have any insight/suggestions I'd appreciate hearing 'em.

Getting closer to understanding.....

The jibberish I was getting was because I was monitoring @ 115200 and the data was really coming at 74880....

When I select the right baud rate, the error message from the 8266 is:

ets Jan 8 2013,rst cause:2, boot mode:(3,6)

load 0x40100000, len 2592, room 16
tail 0
chksum 0xef
load 0x00000000, len 0, room 8
tail 0
chksum 0xef
load 0x00000000, len 0, room 0
tail 0
chksum 0xef
csum 0xef
csum err
ets_main.c

I've read about the reset code, and the boot mode<s>... not sure
how to fix a broken CRC.

There's a bevvy of information on this error throughout the nets... nothing
useful yet. But I'm a software guy, and an swimming in the deep end of
the pool with water-wings.

-U4-

So I've read day-and-night.... tried a lot of cock-a-many ideas (I was
open to anything). I couldn't get the SDK to install/run/compile
after 5~7 hours of tinkering (I'm running Ubuntu 16.4 x64). I tried
downloading the VM and running that (odd that I'd be running
a 32--bit Ubuntu in a VM where the host is 64-bit Ubuntu). Any
how, after 4~6 hours of messing with that, THAT didn't work,
either.

There are SO many stale links and simply "wrong" pieces of advice
out there it's nearly impossible to separate the the wheat from the
chaff.

I'll give it another go Monday, but if life with Espressif/ESP8266 is
going to (continue to) be like this, I think another mfgr is
called for.

Thanks for your help so far!