Here's how to use SpeccyBoot:

• BOOTP & TFTP server configuration
• Loading snapshots

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BOOTP & TFTP server configuration

You will need to install and/or activate servers for BOOTP and TFTP on a computer in your local network. BOOTP/TFTP server software is freely available for most platforms.

Most UNIX variants either include a TFTP server by default, or allow you to install one quite easily. There are third-party TFTP servers for Microsoft Windows too.

BOOTP & TFTP server in Ubuntu 20.04

For Ubuntu 20.04, I recommend running dnsmasq (which handles both BOOTP and TFTP).

• Install dnsmasq:

  sudo apt install dnsmasq

  (You may get an error message about dnsmasq being unable to start, due the DNS port being busy. Don't worry: the configuration below fixes this.)

• Ensure there is a directory for the TFTP server:

  sudo mkdir -p /var/tftp

• Edit /etc/dnsmasq.conf to something like the following:

  port=0  # disable dnsmasq's DNS (SpeccyBoot won't use it anyway)
  
  # Set aside this range for static assignments
  dhcp-range=192.168.82.0,static
  dhcp-authoritative
  
  # Assign a fixed IP address to SpeccyBoot's MAC address.
  # (If this dnsmasq.conf file doesn't have any other dhcp-range or dhcp-host
  # entries, no other BOOTP/DHCP requests are accidentally replied to.)
  dhcp-host=4e:23:e7:1b:7a:b3,192.168.82.48,infinite
  
  # Example:
  # point SpeccyBoot to another server for TFTP. Note that no boot file name
  # is given here (hence the comma before the IP address). If a boot file name
  # is given, it is assumed to be a snapshot and loaded immediately (no menu).
  # dhcp-boot=,192.168.123.234
  
  # Example:
  # set SpeccyBoot to always load the same snapshot (no menu).
  # dhcp-boot=Arkanoid.z80
  
  enable-tftp
  tftp-root=/var/tftp

Preparing a directory of snapshots

Your .z80 snapshots need to be made accessible to your TFTP server. Different TFTP servers use different directories, so check your documentation. (In the dnsmasq example configuration above, this directory is /var/tftp; other TFTP servers likely use something else.)

Copy your .z80 snapshots to this directory:

SNAPDIR=/var/tftp          # <-- adapt this path to match your setup
sudo mkdir -p $SNAPDIR
sudo cp <path-to-snapshots>/*.z80 $SNAPDIR

Updating the snapshot index

After you have created the directory above, and whenever you add or remove a snapshot to/from this directory, you will need to update the SpeccyBoot index menu.dat.

The Python script speccyboot-update generates a menu.dat file for you. This script is located in the utils directory of the SpeccyBoot source code, and is installed into /usr/local/bin by running make install from the speccyboot/utils directory in the SpeccyBoot source tree.

Once speccyboot-update is installed, you can update the snapshot index at any time (such as when you have added a new snapshot to your TFTP directory) by typing

sudo speccyboot-update

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Loading snapshots

If the TFTP server configuration above went well, you should now be able to turn on your Spectrum, see it figure out its IP address as well as that of the TFTP server, and present your list of snapshots. Use the arrow keys to navigate the list, the alphabetic keys to jump directly to snapshots whose name begin with that letter, and Enter to load the selected snapshot.

To boot into BASIC rather than the SpeccyBoot menu, press Caps Shift and keep it pressed while power-cycling/resetting the Spectrum.

Troubleshooting

If the SpeccyBoot seems stuck, look at the border colour:

Border colour	Error	Explanation	Remedy
red	file not found	The TFTP server responded with a TFTP ERROR. This usually means the requested file could not be found on the server.	Check your TFTP configuration and re-run speccyboot-update.
white	communication time-out	The border is white during normal operation, so a white border is not in itself an indication of any error. However, if SpeccyBoot gets stuck for more than ten seconds with a white border it is likely due to a missing (or faulty) server response: If all you see is a "SpeccyBoot" heading and a flashing green/black cursor, but no IP addresses, BOOTP communication failed. If you see two IP addresses on screen (local+server) and a flashing green/black S, TFTP communication failed.	Check your BOOTP and/or TFTP server configuration. Wireshark can be useful for determining what's gone wrong.