Failure in esptool: No such option: --flash-mode and incorrect file name in README

[petrn]

I am new to ESP32 in general and the P4 in particular, so excuse me for asking a basic question. I have tried to follow the instructions in the README and I have installed the IDF using tools/install-idf.sh and I have activated it using . tools/env.sh. My Waveshare ESP32-P4-ETH is on /dev/ttyACM0. Using the command in the README

esptool --chip esp32p4 -b 921600 write-flash @flash_args

does not work - the flash_args file does not exist, so trying

esptool --chip esp32p4 -b 921600 write-flash @flasher_args.json

returns this error:

No such option: --flash-mode, (Possible options: --flash-mode, --flash-size, --flash-type)

Does this mean the esptool installed by the tools/install-idf.sh is not the correct version to be used? It is a bit strange that it says the option does not exist and then lists the same option as a possible one.

This is on Debian 26.04 with Python 3.14.4 and esptool v5.3.1 (all in a fresh VM).

[dexif]

Ah, that's a README bug. Sorry. There's no flash_args file in the release, and flasher_args.json isn't an esptool argfile (it's just a JSON manifest), so that command was never going to work. Your esptool is fine.
Flash the single merged image, no unzip:
esptool --chip esp32p4 -b 921600 write-flash 0x0 espkvm-<version>-<board>-merged.bin

[petrn]

OK, great, thank you.

[petrn]

I can confirm the updated esptool command has worked and the firmware seems to be working fine, thank you again for your help.