ESP8266 Community Forum

Would it be possible to write a bootloader which can accept binary firmware files and flash them over the network?
Is it possible to replace the existing bootloader, or could we write a "bootloader" chained on top of the serial one?
By "over the network", I mean TFTP or netcat.

Anybody smart considered the options here ?

Main advantage would be for ESP01's .. freeing up GPIO0 and 2 and for real use without being concerned about entering boot mode would be nice and then uploading a new arduino/eps8266 image via ftp or similar would be awesome.

It seems to me that most of the hindrance with using the esp8266 is it being crippled by a bootloader that needs both a serial connection and a switch when we have a networkable device handy.

(using my best infomercial voice) imagine updating your device from across the room with a few simple clicks...

I have no idea if this would work ... but could we use TWO ESP8266s for this purpose? Have one ESP8266 to receive flash requests over the network and then drive the "programmable" ESP8266 through its standard flashing process by the first ESP pretending to be a Serial driver?

Every things can be done, at least most of them !
We've sent a man on the moon !

Let be serious : you wish some tfpboot or something like that. I didn't see any one yet, but it should be doable. It need to be tiny and manage the Flashing process to avoid overwriting itself, and the end-user apps need to be linked with different *.ld file so to upload address will be different.
There are already several OTA stuff on the forum, although I didn't try them, that can inspire you how to write such bootloader.