two things.
1) The latest git works, and not the one from git hub but this one http://git.spritesserver.nl/esphttpd.git/
This works without having to uncomment anything or rename the c_types.h file. I installed the sep-open-sdk from github.
2)
You need to install esptool from the expressif website. I had to change the makefile os to LINUX, then it compiled. Then I had to point the esphttp makefile to this directory, where esptool was located. The zip comes with the windows binary but not linux.
3) to get the other examples to compile, say blinky... I had to symlink the esptool to /usr/bin/esptool. then it worked.
Now i just need to get nodemcu to work!