diff --git a/.gitmodules b/.gitmodules
index 55e8a98..66bbbce 100644
--- a/.gitmodules
+++ b/.gitmodules
@@ -13,9 +13,6 @@
 [submodule "tools/firrtl"]
 	path = tools/firrtl
 	url = https://github.com/freechipsproject/firrtl
-[submodule "esp-tools"]
-	path = toolchains/esp-tools
-	url = https://github.com/ucb-bar/esp-tools.git
 [submodule "tools/torture"]
 	path = tools/torture
 	url = https://github.com/ucb-bar/riscv-torture.git
@@ -40,3 +37,6 @@
 [submodule "toolchains/riscv-tools"]
 	path = toolchains/riscv-tools
 	url = https://github.com/freechipsproject/rocket-tools.git
+[submodule "toolchains/esp-tools"]
+	path = toolchains/esp-tools
+	url = https://github.com/ucb-bar/esp-tools.git
diff --git a/scripts/build-toolchains.sh b/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
index cbbfbac..36c2abd 100755
--- a/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
+++ b/scripts/build-toolchains.sh
@@ -10,6 +10,8 @@ unamestr=$(uname)
 RDIR=$(pwd)
 : ${CHIPYARD_DIR:=$(pwd)} #default value is the PWD unless overridden
 
+PRECOMPILED_REPO_HASH=56a40961c98db5e8f904f15dc6efd0870bfefd9e
+
 function usage
 {
     echo "usage: ./scripts/build-toolchains.sh [riscv] [hwacha] [ ec2fast | --ec2fast] "
@@ -68,7 +70,7 @@ if [ "$EC2FASTINSTALL" = "true" ]; then
       cd $RDIR
       git clone https://github.com/firesim/firesim-riscv-tools-prebuilt.git
       cd firesim-riscv-tools-prebuilt
-      git checkout 56a40961c98db5e8f904f15dc6efd0870bfefd9e
+      git checkout $PRECOMPILED_REPO_HASH
       PREBUILTHASH="$(cat HASH)"
       git -C $CHIPYARD_DIR submodule update --init  toolchains/$TOOLCHAIN
       cd "$CHIPYARD_DIR/toolchains/$TOOLCHAIN"
@@ -141,7 +143,7 @@ echo "Toolchain Build Complete!"
 
 
 if [ "$FASTINSTALL" = "false" ]; then
-    # commands to run only on EC2
+    # commands that can't run on EC2 (specifically, OpenOCD because of autoconf version_
     # see if the instance info page exists. if not, we are not on ec2.
     # this is one of the few methods that works without sudo
     if wget -T 1 -t 3 -O /dev/null http://169.254.169.254/; then
diff --git a/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh b/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
index 5693488..40f530e 100755
--- a/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
+++ b/scripts/init-submodules-no-riscv-tools.sh
@@ -12,14 +12,14 @@ scripts_dir="$( cd "$( dirname "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}" )" >/dev/null 2>&1 && pwd )"
 # you must do this globally (otherwise riscv-tools deep
 # in the submodule tree will get pulled anyway
 git config --global submodule.toolchains/riscv-tools.update none
-git config --global submodule.esp-tools.update none
+git config --global submodule.toolchains/esp-tools.update none
 git config --global submodule.experimental-blocks.update none
 # Disable updates to the FireSim submodule until explicitly requested
 git config submodule.sims/firesim.update none
 git submodule update --init --recursive #--jobs 8
 # unignore riscv-tools,catapult-shell2 globally
 git config --global --unset submodule.toolchains/riscv-tools.update
-git config --global --unset submodule.esp-tools.update
+git config --global --unset submodule.toolchains/esp-tools.update
 git config --global --unset submodule.experimental-blocks.update
 
 # Renable firesim and init only the required submodules to provide
diff --git a/sims/firesim b/sims/firesim
index 671a7cf..0d7bc1d 160000
--- a/sims/firesim
+++ b/sims/firesim
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 671a7cf88890ec3da0c07dd203d5c944cd16b840
+Subproject commit 0d7bc1db078d37731dd3d6c3d137a12a7ac42b0e