8/1/2026 at 5:57:18 PM
The responses all seem a little harsh. If you poke through the user's history, this kind of thing isn't new for them, going back to pre-LLM-could-do-this days.I think the docs are light because the primary goal for them is not to provide everyone with a well documented linux on esp-32-s31 guide, but rather this that they shared:
"I'm currently working on a hackable music player and I used to prototype with the OG esp32, and tbh if I wasn't for Bluetooth audio I'd move on to S3 already" ( from the links in this comment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49134987 )
by tyingq
8/1/2026 at 8:37:00 PM
> If you poke through the user's history, this kind of thing isn't new for them, going back to pre-LLM-could-do-this days.Is there another set of comments or history I should be looking at? The only pre-LLM comment is about doing a prototype for something with the old ESP32. That was a common hobby microcontroller introductory project, but there’s a world of difference between playing with an OG ESP32 and porting MMU Linux to a new platform.
I think we should be honest about what this is: Someone spent their tokens letting an agent attempt bring up of Linux on the platform and it got something to work. I’m appreciative that it was shared. However, given the lack of useful documentation (the key MMU doc is basically empty) and the lack of other explanations, I don’t think we should be reading more into this than as a pure LLM agent proof of concept.
by Aurornis
8/2/2026 at 10:15:37 AM
Honestly, why do you care so much if AI was used?Assuming he did use AI, it didn't spontaneously generate the project and foist it upon the user and the world; the user used the AI to generate the project at his direction.
It's like the old friend when I decided I didn't care for wearing a full beard in July and got really angry with me about it when I shaved -- not my friend anymore.
Dont like the project? move along.
Otherwise, why are you wasting your energy to put down this hardwork?
by sparse-Matrix
8/2/2026 at 2:07:12 PM
[dead]by Aurornis
8/2/2026 at 2:37:16 AM
There isn't much interesting about a rocket engine other than it's rocket science and it's awesome if it works. A basic mockup of one is in PrusaSlicer sample files.by numpad0
8/1/2026 at 7:15:46 PM
It takes no effort to play LLM or not, you don't need to know anything about the topic or put anytime into reading and understanding the submission, just find that em-dash and you can turn every discussion into meta slop.by ofalkaed
8/1/2026 at 8:15:57 PM
I also think an LLM isn't going to just spit this all out and viola, it boots. I imagine there were many rounds of jtag debug, copy/paste into the LLM prompt, with enough human knowledge/context to say the right thing, suggest some existing implementation snippet, etc.by tyingq
8/1/2026 at 8:41:02 PM
> I imagine there were many rounds of jtag debug, copy/paste into the LLM promptYou may not be familiar with modern LLM tools.
You don’t need to copy/paste anything. You can easily instruct your agent to access the serial port and JTAG debugger and it will easily handle it through subsessions.
The tools have moved rapidly this year. Something like this is entirely doable by attaching the right cables, telling the agent where to access everything, and then keeping it fed with enough tokens to keep going.
There are some amazing projects doing reverse engineering or porting to micros fully automated. The results are still full of typical LLM output problems, but it’s amazing what can be brute forced with enough tokens in an LLM loop.
When I’m evaluating MCU platforms for new projects I’ll some times set an LLM loose on each to get a proof of concept running so I can do benchmarks or testing. It can save a lot of time finding showstoppers or roadblocks before I waste a lot of time on doing the problem correctly.
by Aurornis
8/3/2026 at 7:12:09 AM
I've been writing code by hand for 30 years and nowadays use LLM too for embedded and Android development among other stuff. It saves a lot of time and is amazing that it can debug multiple embedded devices connected to the computer far better than my doing it by myself.There is certainly slop but it was always like this in software engineering, just that now is far easier for anyone to write code that runs on ESP32 which in my opinion was already quite easy in the past but frankly bothersome to get any complex project running.
I'm old enough to remember when other developers criticized heavily the usage of Turbo Pascal in the 90s because "it wasn't a real compiler" but reality is that it made software writing far easier and fun for a whole new generation of kids. It seems we are going through a similar wave, it will take time until this settles as a new tool.
by nunobrito
8/2/2026 at 10:16:16 AM
This is a common misconception among those who nothing about AIby sparse-Matrix