Error 'exec: "python": executable file not found in $PATH Error compiling for board AI Thinker ESP32-CAM.' in Arduino IDE 1.8.12

Question

I am trying to upload a sketch to the ESP32-CAM board using Arduino IDE 1.8.12 and I get an error message:

exec: "python": executable file not found in $PATH
Error compiling for board AI Thinker ESP32-CAM.

My OS is Ubuntu 18.04.4.LTS.

When I type python in the console, it does open python:

$ python
Python 2.7.17 (default, Nov 7 2019, 10:07:09) 
[GCC 7.4.0] on linux2
Type "help", "copyright", "credits" or "license" for more information.
>>> 
KeyboardInterrupt
>>> 

Also python is in one of the directories referenced by PATH:

$ which python
/usr/bin/python
$ echo $PATH
/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/bin:/usr/sbin:/usr/bin:/sbin:/bin:/usr/games:/usr/local/games:/snap/bin

I added an additional URL referring to the ESP32 boards on the Espressif website:

Arduino IDE > File > Preferences > Settings > Additional Boards Manager URLs: > https://dl.espressif.com/dl/package_esp32_index.json

Then I added the libraries for all ESP32 boards:

Arduino IDE > Tools > Board > Boards Manager > esp32 version 1.0.4

(I tried with version 1.0.3 and it didn't change anything...)

I selected my board in the interface:

Arduino IDE > Tools > Board > AI Tinker ESP32-CAM

I granted all permissions to the USB port:

sudo chmod a+rwx /dev/ttyUSB0
ls -la /dev/ttyUSB0
crwxrwxrwx 1 root dialout 188, 0 Mar 4 21:25 /dev/ttyUSB0

My sketch is really simple:

void setup() {
}
void loop() {
}

I get the same error for any example sketch and for any ESP32 board.

Any idea how this could be fixed ?

Answer 1

All right so I was able to fix the problem. The Arduino IDE I was using had been installed from the Ubuntu Software Center. I uninstalled it.

Then I reinstalled the Arduino IDE by downloading it from the www.arduino.cc website and doing a manual install in /opt. Now it works awesome.

• chrisl: Good, that you solved the problem. You can mark your answer as correct, so that other can see, that this problem is solved.

Answer 2

This was an issue with the old Arduino IDE snap on Ubuntu. You can easily fix this by installing the new arduino snap:

snap install arduino

Then add your user to the dailout group:

sudo usermod -a -G dialout $USER

After this, reboot your device and open Arduino IDE.

Installing additional libraries

The Arduino IDE snap runs inside of a sandbox for security and stability reasons. This means it cannot access the Python libraries on your device. The snap bundles Python 3 and the serial library. If you need any other Python dependencies, you can install them inside of the sandbox using the arduino.pip command.

arduino.pip install <package-name>

Note: do not use sudo for this command