no OTA on t-beam repeaters

build.sh

@@ -135,11 +135,12 @@ if [[ $1 == "esp32" ]]; then
             exit 1;
         fi
 
-        # Classic ESP32 (e.g. T-Beam, PICO-D4) cannot fit the mesh stack
-        # alongside MCUboot in DRAM, so it uses Zephyr's simple-boot path: a
-        # self-contained zephyr.bin flashed at the 0x1000 ROM bootloader offset.
-        # The S3/C-series have the DRAM headroom and use sysbuild + MCUboot
-        # (handled in the blocks below).
+        # Classic ESP32 (e.g. T-Beam, PICO-D4) uses Zephyr's simple-boot path for
+        # both roles: a self-contained zephyr.bin flashed at the 0x1000 ROM
+        # bootloader offset. The companion keeps BLE (whose controller reserves
+        # ~50KB DRAM, leaving no room for MCUboot) and the repeater is CLI-only
+        # (WiFi OTA's functional driver + 64KB heap overflow DRAM by ~10KB). The
+        # S3/C-series have the DRAM headroom and use sysbuild + MCUboot below.
         if [[ $chip == "esp32" ]]; then
             if [[ $2 == "companions" ]]; then
                 role="companion"

zephcore/CMakeLists.txt

@@ -324,10 +324,12 @@ endif()
 # Requires --sysbuild to build MCUboot alongside the app.
 # Non-ESP32 builds and companion builds are unaffected.
 #
-# Excluded on the classic ESP32 (e.g. T-Beam, board qualifier ".../esp32/..."):
-# its DRAM cannot fit the mesh stack alongside WiFi + MCUboot, so it uses the
-# simple-boot path and a CLI-only repeater (no WiFi OTA). The ESP32-S3/C-series
-# (esp32s3/esp32c*) keep WiFi OTA.
+# Excluded on the classic ESP32 (e.g. T-Beam, board qualifier ".../esp32/...").
+# It builds, but only because the WiFi DT node would be left disabled; with WiFi
+# actually functional, the driver buffers + 64KB OTA heap overflow the classic
+# ESP32's DRAM by ~10KB. Rather than trim WiFi/heap to an unverifiable margin,
+# the classic ESP32 repeater stays CLI-only on simple boot (handled in build.sh).
+# The ESP32-S3/C-series have the DRAM headroom and keep WiFi OTA.
 if(ZEPHCORE_PLATFORM_CONF MATCHES "esp32_common" AND EXTRA_CONF_FILE MATCHES "repeater"
    AND NOT BOARD MATCHES "/esp32/")
     set(ZEPHCORE_WIFI_OTA_CONF "${CMAKE_CURRENT_SOURCE_DIR}/boards/common/wifi_ota.conf")

zephcore/boards/esp32/ttgo_tbeam/board.overlay

@@ -31,9 +31,9 @@
  * controller/PHY Kconfig half-configured (BT_ESP32 stays off). Enabling the HCI
  * node selects BT_ESP32, which in turn pulls in the shared PHY.
  *
- * WiFi is intentionally left disabled: the classic ESP32 cannot fit the mesh
- * stack alongside both the WiFi and BLE controllers in DRAM, and the companion
- * transport is BLE. (A WiFi-observer build would need its own RAM-trimmed conf.)
+ * WiFi is intentionally left disabled. The companion transport is BLE, and the
+ * classic ESP32 repeater is CLI-only (WiFi OTA's functional driver + 64KB heap
+ * overflow this board's DRAM, so it's excluded in CMakeLists.txt — see there).
  */
 / {
 	chosen {