ESP32 As Your Raspberri Pi’s Linux Wireless Co-processor

What happened

ESP32 As Your Raspberri Pi’s Linux Wireless Co-processor, according to Hackaday. A laptop with no wireless connectivity feels like a rarity – but when you shop for powerful Linux single-board computers (SBCs), it is pretty common to see one skimp on WiFi. At the same time, current wireless cards can leave much to be desired.

A mess of proprietary firmware, ephemeral or even binary blob drivers, weird glitches never resolved, and sometimes entirely source-less blobs with an expiration date. Maybe the SBC doesn’t have a free USB port for a plug-and-play WiFi chip, or you don’t want to design for an obscure hard-to-source castellated module.

Two Halves, Most Chips Supported A quick clarification is warranted, as there are two projects under the esp-hosted roof. esp-hosted-linux (previously known as esp-hosted-ng , “New Generation”) leaves the wireless stack on the Linux side, with the ESP32 being a relatively thin proxy for the Linux wireless stack.