- the serial port is not at 9600 actually. That would be strange because it's 9600 by default.
- you're seeing the initial boot loader output (from the ROM), it's running at a very strange baudrate, something like 78500 bps, because the crystal normally used isn't in line with what's expected by the boot loader. It's harmless, but it means you can't see what the boot loader outputs.
Can you upload any other image?
I've heard from some people they succeed in flashing the image, so it must be possible
This is what I am using (not all of it is necessary, but it makes sure all is reset to default values):
esptool write_flash --flash_size 16m --flash_mode qio \
0x000000 espiobridge-plain-iram-0x000000.bin \
0x010000 espiobridge-plain-irom-0x010000.bin \
0x07c000 esp_init_data_default.bin \
0x07e000 blank.bin \
0x07b000 blank.bin
This should be sufficient though:
esptool write_flash --flash_size 16m --flash_mode qio \
0x000000 espiobridge-plain-iram-0x000000.bin \
0x010000 espiobridge-plain-irom-0x010000.bin