Ubuntu 22.04 - ESP32 not detected via USB

esp32_undetected_ubuntu_22.04.md

i don't see my ESP32 !1!!1 why is the world so cruel

Can't detect your ESP32 to flash it on Ubuntu 22.04 ? The reason behind might be the same for other boards as well.

Check the following

• Un-plug your ESP32
• Run dmesg -w
• Plug your ESP32
• Take a look at the output of the previous command

If you see something like this

[  407.094955] ch341 8-1:1.0: ch341-uart converter detected
[  407.109005] usb 8-1: ch341-uart converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[  407.671633] input: BRLTTY 6.4 Linux Screen Driver Keyboard as /devices/virtual/input/input22
[  407.677816] usb 8-1: usbfs: interface 0 claimed by ch341 while 'brltty' sets config #1
[  407.680986] ch341-uart ttyUSB0: ch341-uart converter now disconnected from ttyUSB0
[  407.681018] ch341 8-1:1.0: device disconnected

Congratulations ! Your computer thinks that your random ESP32 is supposed to be a Braille Keyboard or something, so brltty is here to save your day, catches the /tty/devUSB0 and registers it somewhere else, destroying it after beign done.

Solution (if you don't need brltty and your eyes hopefully still work well):

# Stop the service
systemctl stop brltty.service

# Halt it from starting on boot
systemctl stop brltty.service

# Make it impossible to re-enable, unless unmasked
systemctl mask brltty.service

sudo systemctl restart udev.service
# + restart your PC if it still occurs, to ensure udev rules are actually applied

# Change udev rules of brltty
for f in /usr/lib/udev/rules.d/*brltty*.rules; do
    sudo ln -s /dev/null "/etc/udev/rules.d/$(basename "$f")"
done
sudo udevadm control --reload-rules

Reference : https://forum.arduino.cc/t/solved-ide-2-3-2-serial-ports-inaccessible-on-linux-mint/1262662/5 which references https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/670636/unable-to-use-usb-dongle-based-on-usb-serial-converter-chip/670637#670637

People like the one in the forum are the saviors of this world. I'm just relaying the message