Error: Unknown board ID - due to wrong absolute path used instead of relative path in case of subst-ed Windows drive

[lmagyar]

What kind of issue is this?

• [x] PlatformIO Core. If you’ve found a bug, please provide an information below.

---

Configuration

Operating system: Win7 + VS Code version 1.63.2

PlatformIO Version (platformio --version): PlatformIO Core, version 5.2.4

Description of problem

Build fails with Error: Unknown board ID 'esp8266_1M' on project that's been working flawlessly for the past several months. Only VS Code and PIO IDE has got updated. Reinstalling VS Code, PIO IDE, even with deleting <user>\.platformio and .vscode folders doesn't change anything.

I've spent several days locating the error, and finally it is reproducible.

Short version: During build, the relative path to .pio directory gets substituted with a wrong absolute path. See below Steps to Reproduce

Steps to Reproduce

Configuration: > subst Z: C:\DRIVE_Z

1. Project located at Z:\_\Project (physically at C:\DRIVE_Z\_\Project) previously has built flawlessly, but due to some change in the past approx. 2 months in PIO now fails with Error: Unknown board ID 'esp8266_1M'
2. If I copy the files to C:\_\Project, it magically builds.

If the project is located on real drives C: or Y:, log shows: Compiling .pio\build\............c.o If the project is located on a subst'ed virtual drive Z:, log shows: Compiling C:\_\Project\.pio\build\............c.o

So PIO somehow figures out, that this is a virtual drive, and starts using absolute path, but uses only the original drive letter but not the original path, somehow it uses <original drive letter>:\<path to project on subst drive>\... instead of <original drive letter>:\<path to project on original drive>\....

Though I don't understand why it tries to replace the perfectly working relative path with an absolute path?

Workaround

Add a junction that redirects C:\_\Project to C:\DRIVE_Z\_\Project.

If problems with PlatformIO Build System:

The content of platformio.ini:

(This is the Tasmota project, that works perfectly when it is NOT on a subst-ed drive.)

; PlatformIO Project Configuration File
;
;   Build options: build flags, source filter, extra scripting
;   Upload options: custom port, speed and extra flags
;   Library options: dependencies, extra library storages
;
; Please visit documentation for the other options and examples
; http://docs.platformio.org/en/stable/projectconf.html
;
; *********************************************************************
; *** Selection of Tasmota build variant is done with VSC
; *** alternatively can be done in: platformio_override.ini
; *** See example: platformio_override_sample.ini
; *********************************************************************

[platformio]
description                 = Provide ESP8266 / ESP32 based devices with Web, MQTT and OTA firmware
src_dir                     = tasmota
lib_dir                     = lib/default
boards_dir                  = boards
build_cache_dir             = .cache
extra_configs               = platformio_tasmota32.ini
                              platformio_tasmota_env.ini
                              platformio_tasmota_env32.ini
                              platformio_override.ini

[common]
platform                    = ${core.platform}
platform_packages           = ${core.platform_packages}
framework                   = arduino
board                       = esp8266_1M
board_build.filesystem      = littlefs
custom_unpack_dir           = unpacked_littlefs
build_unflags               = ${core.build_unflags}
build_flags                 = ${core.build_flags}
monitor_speed               = 115200
monitor_port                = COM5
; *** Upload Serial reset method for Wemos and NodeMCU
upload_resetmethod          = nodemcu
upload_port                 = COM5
extra_scripts               = ${scripts_defaults.extra_scripts}
lib_ldf_mode                = chain
lib_compat_mode             = strict
shared_libdeps_dir          = lib
lib_extra_dirs              =
                              lib/lib_basic
                              lib/lib_i2c
                              lib/lib_display
                              lib/lib_ssl
                              lib/lib_audio
                              lib/lib_rf
                              lib/lib_div

[scripts_defaults]
extra_scripts               = pio-tools/strip-floats.py
                              pio-tools/name-firmware.py
                              pio-tools/gzip-firmware.py
                              pio-tools/override_copy.py
                              pio-tools/download_fs.py

[esp_defaults]
; *** remove undesired all warnings
build_unflags               = -Wall
;                              -mtarget-align
                              -Wdeprecated-declarations
build_flags                 = -DCORE_DEBUG_LEVEL=0
                              -Wl,-Map,firmware.map
                              -Wno-deprecated-declarations
;                              -mno-target-align
                              -mtarget-align
                              -free
                              -fipa-pta
                              -Wreturn-type
; *********************************************************************
; *** Use custom settings from file user_config_override.h
                              -DUSE_CONFIG_OVERRIDE
; *********************************************************************


[esp82xx_defaults]
build_flags                 = ${esp_defaults.build_flags}
                              -DNDEBUG
                              -DFP_IN_IROM
                              -DBEARSSL_SSL_BASIC
                              ; NONOSDK22x_190703 = 2.2.2-dev(38a443e)
                              -DPIO_FRAMEWORK_ARDUINO_ESPRESSIF_SDK22x_190703
                              -DPIO_FRAMEWORK_ARDUINO_LWIP2_HIGHER_BANDWIDTH_LOW_FLASH
                              ; VTABLES in Flash
                              -DVTABLES_IN_FLASH
                              ; remove the 4-bytes alignment for PSTR()
                              -DPSTR_ALIGN=1
                              ; restrict to minimal mime-types
                              -DMIMETYPE_MINIMAL
                              ; uncomment the following to enable TLS with 4096 RSA certificates
                              ;-DUSE_4K_RSA

[core]
; *** Esp8266 Tasmota modified Arduino core based on core 2.7.4. Added Backport for PWM selection
platform                    = espressif8266 @ 2.6.3
platform_packages           = tasmota/framework-arduinoespressif8266 @ ~2.7.4
build_unflags               = ${esp_defaults.build_unflags}
build_flags                 = ${esp82xx_defaults.build_flags}
; *** Use ONE of the two PWM variants. Tasmota default is Locked PWM
                              ;-DWAVEFORM_LOCKED_PHASE
                              -DWAVEFORM_LOCKED_PWM

Additional info

This very similar to #4056, but I think it has some very different root cause.

[lmagyar]

AFAIU (I'm relatively new to PIO)

• there is a bug in Python 3.8+, that is categorized as "not a bug", so won't be resolved ever
• PIO has a fix in commit 4687665 for issue #3417
• this fix uses os.path.abspath(projects_dir) instead of os.path.realpath(projects_dir) to solve the problem of network drives
• that seems to be the root cause of this issue, the problem of subst-ed drives

I used PIO last time exactly before this commit 4687665 (build was OK), then, after a long break only now, 2 months later (build fails with this fix).

[ivankravets]

Could you provide an output from the net use command?

[lmagyar]

Status       Local     Remote                    Network

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
OK           H:        \\192.168.22.22\config    Microsoft Windows Network
OK           I:        \\192.168.22.22\backup    Microsoft Windows Network
OK           J:        \\192.168.22.22\addons    Microsoft Windows Network
OK           K:        \\192.168.22.22\media     Microsoft Windows Network
OK           L:        \\192.168.22.22\share     Microsoft Windows Network

They used in non-PIO related context, they point to a virtual net card that is used by ssh client to forward ports through ssh tunnel to a server.

Update: And my local lan is the usual 192.168.1.x

[lmagyar]

I've spent another 2 days fighting with this issue, and finally I have a root cause of the root cause:

• The 4687665 modification of PlatformIO AND using folder names starting with $ character is what causes the problem: path-es under that $ named folder disappear in some cases, causing errors like files are missing in the system
• In case of ESP8266 development (of the Tasmota repo) this error surfaced only when I used Subst
• In case of ESP32 development (of the Tasmota repo), the build failed even without using Subst in the system at all, just reinstalling everything (VSC, PIO) and putting the unzipped repo into a folder like C:\$Something\ProjectName was enough to fail

After renaming the folder from $Something to _Something, everything started to work normally with PIO! Other things has no problem with this $ character, and before 2021's autumn PIO had no problems also.

I have a guess, that when a share name starts with a $ sign, it is hidden, and somehow the 4687665 modification causes that not only shares but folders also got hidden (in some cases) when their names are starting with a $ sign.

If you think this is a special corner case, this issue can be closed.

[ivankravets]

I see. How does $ appear in Windows path? It can lead to a problem on SCons site (when building project) because SCons will try to substitute $VARs with their values.

[lmagyar]

I simply named manually a folder with a $ in it's name because it will be on top, separated from other folders (I hate mixing stuff on drive C:, so I also subst-ed it into a separate drive). I'm using Win, and it has never been a problem, so it took me days until I figured out this can be the root cause. I'm new this ecosystem and learning the hard way. :)

In summary: don't use ANY special characters in folder/branch/etc. names, \w should be a safe option.

[HankLloydRight]

I simply named manually a folder with a $ in it's name because it will be on top

Just FYI, I use ! for this purpose (or even !!) and it works great and doesn't interfere with anything else.

I'm having this same "board not found" problem with a generic Win10 install and PIO and using this in my platformio.ini file:

board = lolin_s2_mini

Other ESP32 boards work fine (lolin_d32, lolin32, etc).

[ivankravets]

The https://github.com/platformio/platformio-core/issues/3417 has been resolved. Please re-test with pio upgrade --dev.