[Bug Report]: pip is not part of the virtual environment created in WSL 2. (VSC-657)

As noted by @brianignacio5 in a post on esp32.com, pip is not part of the virtual environment created in WSL 2. It is not clear to me whether this is due of the ESP-IDF extension setup or not.

@brianignacio5 , you had asked the OP of that thread to check if pip was in his idf4.2_py3.8_env/bin/. For me it was not. I only saw two symbolic links to the python3 binary: lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 7 May 11 17:21 python -> python3 lrwxrwxrwx 1 chris chris 16 May 11 17:21 python3 -> /usr/bin/python3

After following your pip install directions in that post, and after using the ESP-IDF Setup again, the setup completed.

[pearson]

There is an already existing WSL Documentation that mentions the install of python3-pip, env and these things but is probably not visible enough for most users, as most documentation is. We could improve this file and/or add the WSL tutorial doc.

Agreed. I did not know that document existed. A clear link in the “install” document would be very helpful there.

So basically:

1. run apt-get from the WSL terminal to install prerequisites in WSL documentation.
2. Run the extension Configure ESP-IDF extension command
3. Extension should work on WSL 2 now.

This misses the issue regarding pip not being installed into the virtual environment. I had pip installed before the creation of the python virtual environment and yet I saw the error mentioned in #8 above. A manual install of pip into that virtual environment was required to continue the ESP-IDF extension install.

[pearson]

I’m happy to contribute where I can. 😄

Just in case it is relevant, I’m using WSL2 on a standard Windows 10 Pro install.

I am running the Remote WSL extension on a Windows-based VS Code. I had initially installed VS Code directly into the WSL distribution, but a warning message described the “proper” way to use VS Code with WSL, so I uninstalled VS Code from WSL and switched to using the Remote WSL extension.

I decided to try this again from scratch, so I installed a new Ubuntu distribution. I intentionally installed nothing before beginning just to see what errors popped up.

Here is my \home\chris.vscode-server\extensions\espressif.esp-idf-extension-1.0.3\esp_idf_vsc_ext.log log. It has been edited with breaks to show where I was during the install. The break notes FOLLOW the log output, as I simply typed what had happened and saved the file. There are two more outputs in files below.

Here are the steps taken:

1. Unregistered Ubuntu and reinstalled from Microsoft Store
2. Re-enabled Remote-WSL
3. Installed these extensions to WSL:Ubuntu:
   • C/C++ Extension Pack
     • An error popped up stating “We were unable to install support for joining sessions using a browser link. You may be missing key Linux libraries. Install them now?”. I had not installed build-essentials and such. The installation of the C/C++ Extension Pack continued after it installed the libraries and reloaded VS Code.
   • Espressif IDF
4. Used the ESP-IDF: Configure ESP-IDF extension
   • CMake and Ninja were missing. These were installed normally with:
     • sudo apt install cmake
     • sudo apt install ninja-build
5. Used the ESP-IDF: Configure ESP-IDF extension
   • The “Express” option was chosen
   • The install failed as /usr/bin/python3 -m pip was invalid
   • Python is not installed by default. It was installed normally with sudo apt install python3 python3-pip.
6. The ESP-IDF configure “Install” button was pressed again
   • Install failed as python3-venv was missing
   • Note that the install screen still showed the previous error, "/usr/bin/python3 -m pip" is not valid.. I had not clicked the close button on that error. Obviously this could be confusing.
7. Clicked “Install” again, got the “esp-idf already exists. Delete it or use another location.” error. (This error could use to be changed to state that the existing directory can be used.)
8. Selected “Find ESP-IDF in your system” and clicked “Install” again.
   • Install failed with /home/chris/.espressif/python_env/idf4.2_py3.8_env/bin/python: No module named pip
     • Pip is definitely installed in the main system
   • Note that no new red-banner error message showed up in the GUI area. I had closed the previous error before clicking install. Showing an error banner would be useful
   • Pip was installed into the virtual environment with /home/chris/.espressif/python_env/idf4.2_py3.8_env/bin/python ./get-pip.py
9. ESP-IDF: Show Example Projects
   • This fails with the message “No framework selected to load examples”. No pop-up list appears with the framework choices.
     • This error may have been be due to not having a folder open yet. If a folder is opened, and then the “ESP-IDF: Show Example Projects” command is used, the frameworks pop-up list appears.
     • However this problem did not reoccur after successfully opening an example project, then opening a “New WSL Window”, then using the “ESP-IDF: Show Example Projects” command again.
10. ESP-IDF: Show Example Projects (With a folder now opened.)
    • A “hello world” example was chosen.
    • “Build” was pressed.
    • Build messages: (Full build messages are here: first_build_attempt.txt)

The following Python requirements are not satisfied:
pyserial>=3.0
cryptography>=2.1.4
pyparsing>=2.0.3,<2.4.0
pyelftools>=0.22
gdbgui==0.13.2.0
reedsolo>=1.5.3,<=1.5.4
bitstring>=3.1.6
ecdsa>=0.16.0
To install the missing packages, please run "/home/chris/esp/esp-idf/install.sh"
Diagnostic information:
    IDF_PYTHON_ENV_PATH: /home/chris/.espressif/python_env/idf4.2_py3.8_env
    Python interpreter used: /home/chris/.espressif/python_env/idf4.2_py3.8_env/bin/python

1. “ESP-IDF: Install ESP-IDF extension Python Packages” was used.
   • Log output is here: using_Install_ESP-IDF_Python_Packages_command.txt. Essentially it installed the missing packages.
   • Note that in my first WSL install, I had used the /home/chris/esp/esp-idf/install.sh script as suggested by the build output. They seem to both do the same thing.
2. A build was attempt and it completed successfully!

Final Thoughts

A few thoughts about the “ESP-IDF: Configure ESP-IDF extension” process that came out of this:

• the prerequisites page could use to have a bit more information regarding what python packages are required. (python3 itself, python3-pip, and python3-venv)
• More red-banner errors would be useful, as a few errors do not show any red banner errors at all. Showing some errors, but then not others, is inconsistent and doesn’t point the user to look at the output window.
  • I felt this way on my first install of the extension, as all I was looking at was the screen I had clicked “launch” on previously.)