A Short TLVC Q&A

Questions and Answers about TLVC

What makes TLVC a better tool than say MSDOS or FreeDOS to revive old hardware?


It depends on where you're coming from and where you're heading. If you're a DOS/Windows person, DOS and FreeDOS are probably great for you. If you're a Linux/Unix person, TLVC provides a familiar and open platform without restrictions. If what you need is missing, you can fix/add it - and/or get help from the community to do so.

What is the minimal hardware requirements to run TLVC?


A bare bones system can be configured to run in 256K RAM off of a 320K floppy on a 4MHz 8088 based system. This has NOT been tested - such hardware is hard to come by. If you have something like that available and are willing to test, please let the group know, and we'll create a configuration for you. Refer to the Configure and Build TLVC document for details.

Can TLVC run headless (no screen or graphics card)?


It should, but this has not been tested. Serial console is supported, and much easier to work with than the PC console for the simple reason you can collect the output all the time. Even when running on QEMU, serial console is preferable (refer to the TLVC and Emulators document for details).

How do I make a boot floppy?


Please refer to the wiki Configure and Build TLVC document. There are two main steps: Getting or creating a bootable floppy image, and transferring the image to physical media. Both are discussed on the docs, contact the group if you need more info or help.

How do I configure/tailor a system for my hardware?


You should collect as much data about your system as possible: Is it a fully PC compatible system? Which processor? How much RAM? Standard Keyboard? What type of graphics card etc. Incidentally, just booting a standard TLVC floppy image will answer a lot of these questions. Then again, there may be situations where TLVC fails to recognize some of the hardware, so the boot messages are misleading or incomplete. Or the console doesn't work. Again refer to the Configure and Build TLVC document for guidance.

I don't know what components my system has, what do I do?


Create a boot floppy, boot it and see what happens. That will hopefully tell you at least the basics.

What about network support?


TLVC includes a rudimentary TCP/IP implementation without UDP. Servers and client programs for telnet, ftp and http are included and work well. Refer to the TLVC Networking Guide for details.

Is TLVC a secure system?


No, TLVC is completely open, no security whatsoever. You're on your own. The system has basic Unix/Linux login and file access protection mechanisms, but they're not used. It's assumed you are root, you're always unprotected. Be careful.

What about documentation?


TLVC is reasonably well documented. Many commands, libraries, file formats and drivers have man-pages (some of them out of date though), and the GitHub wiki files are decent. Contributions solicited.