How to build 6plusv2-integration branch?

[silbe]

I'd like to give adding InkPlate 10 v2 (MCP23017 replaced by PCAL6416) support a try now that support for 6PLUS v2 (also using PCAL6416) has been added. As a first step I'm trying to build the 6PLUS v2 release from source (without changes for 10 v2 support).

What are the steps (including initial setup) to build EPub-InkPlate?

Based on some poking around my guess is something like the following, but something still isn't right (see below for details):

git clone -b 6plusv2-integration https://github.com/turgu1/EPub-InkPlate.git
git clone -b 6plusv2-integration https://github.com/turgu1/ESP-IDF-InkPlate.git
git clone -b v5.3.1 --recurse-submodules https://github.com/espressif/esp-idf.git esp/esp-idf

( cd esp/esp-idf && ./install.sh esp32 )

sed -i -e "s#/home/turgu1/Dev/#${HOME}/#" EPub-InkPlate/CMakeLists.txt

( . ~/esp/esp-idf/export.sh && cd EPub-InkPlate && ./bld_release.sh "$(git describe --tags |cut -c 2- )" 6plusv2 0 )

The builds fails with the following error:

/home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp: In member function 'int16_t EPub::get_item_count()':
/home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp:1060:32: error: no matching function for call to 'distance(pugi::xml_named_node_iterator, pugi::xml_named_node_iterator)'
 1060 |   int16_t count = std::distance(it.begin(), it.end());
      |                   ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In file included from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/string:47,
                 from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/locale_classes.h:40,
                 from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/ios_base.h:41,
                 from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/ios:44,
                 from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/ostream:40,
                 from /home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/iostream:41,
                 from /home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/components/global/src/global.hpp:9,
                 from /home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.hpp:6,
                 from /home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp:6:
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: note: candidate: 'template<class _InputIterator> constexpr typename std::iterator_traits< <template-parameter-1-1> >::difference_type std::distance(_InputIterator, _InputIterator)'
  148 |     distance(_InputIterator __first, _InputIterator __last)
      |     ^~~~~~~~
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: note:   template argument deduction/substitution failed:
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h: In substitution of 'template<class _InputIterator> constexpr typename std::iterator_traits< <template-parameter-1-1> >::difference_type std::distance(_InputIterator, _InputIterator) [with _InputIterator = pugi::xml_named_node_iterator]':
/home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp:1060:32:   required from here
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: error: no type named 'difference_type' in 'struct std::iterator_traits<pugi::xml_named_node_iterator>'
/home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp:1064:26: error: no matching function for call to 'distance(pugi::xml_named_node_iterator, pugi::xml_named_node_iterator)'
 1064 |     count = std::distance(it.begin(), it.end());
      |             ~~~~~~~~~~~~~^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: note: candidate: 'template<class _InputIterator> constexpr typename std::iterator_traits< <template-parameter-1-1> >::difference_type std::distance(_InputIterator, _InputIterator)'
  148 |     distance(_InputIterator __first, _InputIterator __last)
      |     ^~~~~~~~
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: note:   template argument deduction/substitution failed:
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h: In substitution of 'template<class _InputIterator> constexpr typename std::iterator_traits< <template-parameter-1-1> >::difference_type std::distance(_InputIterator, _InputIterator) [with _InputIterator = pugi::xml_named_node_iterator]':
/home/sascha/EPub-InkPlate/src/models/epub.cpp:1064:26:   required from here
/home/sascha/.espressif/tools/xtensa-esp-elf/esp-13.2.0_20240530/xtensa-esp-elf/xtensa-esp-elf/include/c++/13.2.0/bits/stl_iterator_base_funcs.h:148:5: error: no type named 'difference_type' in 'struct std::iterator_traits<pugi::xml_named_node_iterator>'

Do I need a different version of esp-idf?

[gigawatts]

I second the request for build instructions. I've got a few tweaks I would like to make, as discussed in #18

[swlxe]

I third, would be helpful!

[gigawatts]

@turgu1 can we get some basic instructions for how to compile?

[turgu1]

Hello, sorry for the looooong delay to look at this. Very busy on other projects and contracts. I need to do some cleanup to the CMakefiles and also integrate the changes made in the 6plusv2 branch to the main branch and document the build process. Will try to do that today, so stay tuned.

[turgu1]

The master branch of the project is now up to date. The README.md file now contains the information to build a binary image for a device and also how to build a complete release file. Hope that will be ok.

As I don't have a 6PLUS_V2 device, I can't try it so if you find any issue, please let me know. I do have a 6FLICK device that is similar to the V2 with the PCAL port extender and it works fine.

I'm still considering this a beta software. A lot of time would be required to do proper testing that I don't have at the moment.

Have fun!

[gigawatts]

The master branch of the project is now up to date. The README.md file now contains the information to build a binary image for a device and also how to build a complete release file. Hope that will be ok.

As I don't have a 6PLUS_V2 device, I can't try it so if you find any issue, please let me know. I do have a 6FLICK device that is similar to the V2 with the PCAL port extender and it works fine.

I'm still considering this a beta software. A lot of time would be required to do proper testing that I don't have at the moment.

Have fun!

I will give it a shot shortly, thank you!

[gigawatts]

I successfully built the firmware, but after flashing it to my InkPlate 6 Plus v2, it seems to fail to init the SPI bus for the SD card, then restarts (over and over).

Here is the log from serial output:

I (604) quad_psram: This chip is ESP32-D0WD
I (605) esp_psram: Found 8MB PSRAM device
I (605) esp_psram: Speed: 40MHz
I (605) esp_psram: PSRAM initialized, cache is in low/high (2-core) mode.
W (610) esp_psram: Virtual address not enough for PSRAM, map as much as we can. 4MB is mapped
I (618) cpu_start: Multicore app
I (1502) esp_psram: SPI SRAM memory test OK
I (1511) cpu_start: GPIO 3 and 1 are used as console UART I/O pins
I (1511) cpu_start: Pro cpu start user code
I (1511) cpu_start: cpu freq: 240000000 Hz
I (1513) app_init: Application information:
I (1517) app_init: Project name:     EPub-InkPlate
I (1522) app_init: App version:      2.1.0-BETA-I6PV2-20260121-0334Z
I (1528) app_init: Compile time:     Jan 20 2026 21:35:05
I (1533) app_init: ELF file SHA256:  36175a35d...
I (1537) app_init: ESP-IDF:          v5.5.2
I (1541) efuse_init: Min chip rev:     v0.0
I (1545) efuse_init: Max chip rev:     v3.99 
I (1549) efuse_init: Chip rev:         v3.0
I (1554) heap_init: Initializing. RAM available for dynamic allocation:
I (1560) heap_init: At 3FFAE6E0 len 00001920 (6 KiB): DRAM
I (1565) heap_init: At 3FFC1D90 len 0001E270 (120 KiB): DRAM
I (1570) heap_init: At 3FFE0440 len 00003AE0 (14 KiB): D/IRAM
I (1575) heap_init: At 3FFE4350 len 0001BCB0 (111 KiB): D/IRAM
I (1581) heap_init: At 4009F508 len 00000AF8 (2 KiB): IRAM
I (1587) esp_psram: Adding pool of 4080K of PSRAM memory to heap allocator
I (1594) spi_flash: detected chip: generic
I (1597) spi_flash: flash io: dio
I (1606) main_task: Started on CPU0
I (1616) esp_psram: Reserving pool of 32K of internal memory for DMA/internal allocations
I (1616) main_task: Calling app_main()
This is esp32 chip with 2 CPU core(s), WiFi/BT/BLE, silicon revision 300, 4MB external flash
Minimum free heap size: 4378236 bytes
Heap summary for capabilities 0x00000C06:
  Totals:
    free 0 allocated 0 min_free 0 largest_free_block 0
I (1636) main: EPub-Inkplate Startup.
W (1666) i2c.master: Please check pull-up resistances whether be connected properly. Otherwise unexpected behavior would happen. For more detailed information, pls
I (1676) PCAL6416: PCAL at address 0x20 has been detected
I (1676) main_task: Returned from app_main()
I (1686) PCAL6416: PCAL at address 0x21 has been detected
E (1776) gpio: gpio_pullup_en(78): GPIO number error (input-only pad has no internal PU)
E (1776) gpio: gpio_pulldown_en(116): GPIO number error (input-only pad has no internal PD)
I (2056) TouchScreen: Software reset OK
I (2056) TouchScreen: Resolution: [1436, 1920]
I (2066) SDCard: Setup SD card
E (2166) spi: spi_bus_initialize(823): no support changing io default level 
E (2166) SDCard: Failed to initialize SPI bus for SD Card.
E (2166) InkPlatePlatform: SDCard setup not completed!
E (2166) main: Inkplate Platform Setup Error. Restarting!

In case this helps, here is the output from a previous paste in the other issue, where it did boot correctly, and mentioned GPIO[15] under the SDCard init section:
#18 (comment)

[gigawatts]

In components/ESP-IDF-InkPlate/src/drivers/sd_card.cpp line 77, I change true to false, and it compiled and booted correctly this time.

However, many operations cause various errors in the serial console output, some cause the device to restart. I'll try to correlate events and the error messages that came with them.

Here is one such error:

Fetch NTP time

I (450156) WiFi STA Event Hanfler: STA Event, Base: 0x3f414b29, Event: 0.
I (450156) WiFi STA Event Hanfler: got ip:192.168.x.xxx
I (450156) WiFi: connected to ap SSID:xxx password:xxx
I (450166) mdns_mem: mDNS task will be created from internal RAM
ESP_ERROR_CHECK failed: esp_err_t 0x105 (ESP_ERR_NOT_FOUND) at 0x400e996f
file: "./src/controllers/wifi.cpp" line 287
func: void WIFI::stop()
expression: esp_event_handler_unregister(IP_EVENT, ESP_EVENT_ANY_ID, &wifi_sta_event_handler)

abort() was called at PC 0x4008ff57 on core 0


Backtrace: xxx

<Device restarts>

Also note gpio pull-up/down errors from the comment above, those show up in the "working" firmware as well.

[turgu1]

Good catch for the sd_card! My call, was not expecting this change to make a difference. There is not that much info in the esp-idf documentation about it.

I'm looking at what is going wrong with the wifi portion as NTP is using it. Tried also to start the wifi service to download books with similar error.

[turgu1]

Commenting line 77 in components/ESP-IDF-InkPlate/src/drivers/sd_card.cpp, I was able to recompile using esp-idf version 5.3.1. Wifi is running (almost) fine when using NTP and the Wifi server too. Still there is some issue when rebooting (it tried many times before successfully rebooting).

I also tried using V5.3.4 without success so there was some change made somewhere between the two version that I'm looking at now.

Also looking the many reboot attempts issue after time update through NTP. Seems to be related to the 6FLICK touchscreen so you may not have the problem as the 6PLUS_V2 uses a different touchscreen device.

[turgu1]

I've been doing some research on the issue, comparing esp-idf code examples for wifi between version 5.3.1 and 5.5.2, nothing significant. Using v5.3.4, tried to augment the stack size, problem still there.

Installed esp-idf versions 5.3.2 and 5.3.3 . No wifi error with 5.3.2 (as per 5.3.1) but the same errors shown from 5.3.4 and 5.5.2 appears when using NTP with 5.3.3. Will now analyse the 5.3.3 release notes and compare the wifi component source code to try to see something.

[turgu1]

@gigawatts : I have generated a 5.5.2-bugs branch for which I have patched the WIFI::stop() method. I can't get my 6FLICK running with ESP-IDF v5.5.2 as I have an issue I think with the touch screen.

Was able to get ESP-IDF v5.3.3 working even if the touch screen issue was causing some rebooting. Both NTP and the web server worked.

Can you try with that branch with ESP-IDF V5.5.2?

[gigawatts]

Built and flashed from the branch requested. NTP sync worked, and I was able to upload a new epub over Wifi without issues. Touch screen works fine.

[turgu1]

@gigawatts Any other issue you may have?

[gigawatts]

Nothing else major at the moment, I'll keep playing with it and let you know!

3 bit mode does cause a full refresh on every update (page turn, menu press, etc), but I think thats listed in your todo.txt, so I've been using 1-bit mode to reduce the refresh time.

I'll continue working on my "Power off / Idle wallpaper" idea, now that I can customize and compile 👍

Thank you SO much for your continued support on this!