A primeira ferramenta para o ESP-01 no Linux é o esptool.py.
No esptool dá para fazer a manutenção completa do ESP-01
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads# wget
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/themadinventor/esptool/master/esptool.py
--2015-04-25 17:33:39--
https://raw.githubusercontent.com/themadinventor/esptool/master/esptool.py
Resolving raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)... 199.27.75.133
Connecting to raw.githubusercontent.com (raw.githubusercontent.com)|199.27.75.133|:443... connected.
HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK
Length: 23964 (23K) [text/plain]
Saving to: ‘esptool.py’
100%[===============================================================================================================================>] 23.964 --.-K/s in 0,006s
2015-04-25 17:33:40 (3,88 MB/s) - ‘esptool.py’ saved [23964/23964]
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads# chmod +x esptool.py
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads# ./esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 read_mac
Connecting...
MAC: 18:fe:34:9f:13:f3
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads#
https://github.com/nodemcu/nodemcu-firmware/releases/tag/0.9.6-dev_20150406
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads# ./esptool.py --port /dev/ttyUSB0 write_flash 0x0 nodemcu_integer_0.9.6-dev_20150406.bin
Connecting...
Erasing flash...
Writing at 0x00066400... (100 %)
Leaving...
root@murix-System-Product-Name:~/Downloads#