FINALLY!!! I found the reason why the first build attempt would for the ESP32 port!!!!!.

Author: kdschlosser

builder/esp32.py

@@ -205,6 +205,14 @@ def parse_args(extra_args, lv_cflags, board):
 
 
 def build_commands(_, extra_args, __, lv_cflags, board):
+ clean_cmd.extend(esp_cmd[:])
+ clean_cmd[1] = 'clean'
+ clean_cmd.append(f'BOARD={board}')
+
+ submodules_cmd.extend(esp_cmd[:])
+ submodules_cmd[1] = 'submodules'
+ submodules_cmd.append(f'BOARD={board}')
+
  esp_cmd.extend([
  f'LV_CFLAGS="{lv_cflags}"',
  f'LV_PORT=esp32',
@@ -214,19 +222,13 @@ def build_commands(_, extra_args, __, lv_cflags, board):
 
  esp_cmd.extend(extra_args)
 
- clean_cmd.extend(esp_cmd[:])
- clean_cmd[1] = 'clean'
-
  compile_cmd.extend(esp_cmd[:])
  compile_cmd.pop(1)
 
- submodules_cmd.extend(esp_cmd[:])
- submodules_cmd[1] = 'submodules'
-
  if board_variant:
- clean_cmd.insert(8, f'BOARD_VARIANT={board_variant}')
+ clean_cmd.append(f'BOARD_VARIANT={board_variant}')
  compile_cmd.insert(7, f'BOARD_VARIANT={board_variant}')
- submodules_cmd.insert(8, f'BOARD_VARIANT={board_variant}')
+ submodules_cmd.append(f'BOARD_VARIANT={board_variant}')
 
 
 def get_idf_version():
@@ -258,10 +260,11 @@ def build_manifest(target, script_dir, displays, indevs, frozen_manifest):
 
 
 def clean():
+ env = setup_idf_environ()
  if 'deploy' in clean_cmd:
  clean_cmd.remove('deploy')
 
- spawn(clean_cmd)
+ spawn(clean_cmd, env=env)
 
 
 def setup_idf_environ():
@@ -350,7 +353,9 @@ def submodules():
  if 'deploy' in submodules_cmd:
  submodules_cmd.remove('deploy')
 
- return_code, _ = spawn(submodules_cmd)
+ env = setup_idf_environ()
+
+ return_code, _ = spawn(submodules_cmd, env=env)
  if return_code != 0:
  sys.exit(return_code)