How to use the BBA with dc load ip
This tutorial has been tested on a new Linux Mint 19.1 install.
My dreamcast is connected directly to my computer, no router in between.
Get a selfbooting version of dc-load-ip. I've burned this with imgburn without any problem.
Next, boot dc-load-ip in your dreamcast and make sure your BBA is connected in order to get your BBA mac adress.
Once the green screen appears, note down your MAC adress. It should look something like
10:04:5d:2b:0f:4d
Note it down because we'll need it later.
We'll use the arp fonction to get your computer to "give" an IP adress to your Dreamcast based on its mac adress. In a terminal, enter:
sudo arp -s [local IP adress] [MAC adress]
[local IP adress] is any valid IP adress that you want to assign to your dreamcast
[MAC adress] is your dreamcast's MAC adress, look at step 2.
the local IP adress should be in the same range as your network. In my setup, my ethernet port is set on port 192.168.5.100 and my [local IP adress] is 192.168.5.99. If you don't know your network range, you can use ifconfig in a terminal to find out. I wont cover this here.
At this point, you should be able to see if your dreamcast is connected.
A simple ping command should do the job.
ping [local IP adress]
you should get a message like : 64 byte from [local IP adress] .... blabla ... time=xx ms
I'm currently using a pre-compiled dcload-ip which seems to work fine.
You can now use that program to send your file to the DC. Make sure you dreamcast is running dc-load-ip. I've renamed the program to dc-tool-ip for simpler access.
dc-tool-ip -t [local IP adress] -x /path/to/your/.bin/or/.elf/file
You can always run dc-tool-ip without any command to get some info on how to run it.
The -c option is useful if you need to use files that are located on your pc. You can use them with the /pc path.
The arp command used on step 3 will need to be entered everytime you relog/shut down the dreamcast. I've added it to my environ.sh script.
Also, you can add a line to your host file in order to replace [local IP adress] to a more friendly name.
sudo nano /etc/hosts
then adding the line :
dreamcast [local IP adress]
You can now refer do dreamcast instead of your usual [local IP adress]
Other info at CubicVR