A few days ago I posted about the release of TK5, which is the “turnkey” mainframe operating system you can run at home on your Linux or other system.

Interested in vintage operating systems?  Check our other posts:

• Run a $8 Million Mainframe at Home for FREE!
• Meet the Man Running His Business on a 1967 Mainframe! Plus Hugo Award Nominee Galactic Journey!
• The Free $8 Million Mainframe is Now Updated and Better Than Ever!

However, I learned that the “turnkey” OS isn’t as “turnkey” as people like.  Specifically, it doesn’t work on Debian 12.

Actually, it does, but it needs some help.

The core issue is the Hercules emulator.  Hercules is a free emulator that models IBM mainframe operating system hardware.  It can emulate IBM’s mainframe hardware, and virtually plug in tape drives, punch cards, disk and other peripherals.

The previous TK4 was built for Hercules 3, which was very long in the tooth.  Eventually, Hercules fell into disrepair and the v3 edition stretched on for a long time until someone picked up the reins and decided to make a Herc 4.  Tk5 requires Hercules 4.

Unfortunately, your Debian 12 comes with Hercules 3 (assuming you apt install it), which won’t work.  Also, the bundled version of Hercules 4 with TK5 won’t work on Debian, due to either the way it’s compiled or some shared library issue I couldn’t track down.

The Solution

The answer is simple: build and install your own Hercules 4.

First, make sure you have various required packages:

apt-get -y install git wget time build-essential cmake flex gawk \
m4 autoconf automake libtool-bin libltdl-dev libbz2-dev zlib1g-dev \
libcap2-bin libregina3-dev

Now clone Hercules 4 (“Hyperion”) into some place suitable.

cd /usr/local/src
git clone https://github.com/SDL-Hercules-390/hyperion.git
cd hyperion/

Then, just configure and make

./configure
make
make install

Extract the TK5 distro into someplace.  I just put it off root, where it lives as /mvs-tk5

Edit /mvs-tk5/mvs_ipl and modify these lines:

linux)
   force_arch=
#   export PATH=hercules/$system/$arch/bin:$PATH
#   export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=hercules/$system/$arch/lib:hercules/$system/$arch/lib/hercules:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
    export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/local/lib:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

Now you should be able to run ‘mvs’ without issues.

Would you like to create a systemd service so it runs at boot?  Here’s mine:

# cat /etc/systemd/system/mvs.service 
[Unit]
Description=MVS 3.8j
ConditionPathExists=/mvs-tk5

[Service]
WorkingDirectory=/mvs-tk5
ExecStart=/mvs-tk5/mvs
KillMode=process
Type=simple

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

That WorkingDirectory is important, because various things in the mvs script refer to relative paths.

Now just

systemctl daemon-reload
systemctl enable mvs
systemctl start mvs

And you’re back in the 70s!

• Author
• Recent Posts

raindog308

Dread Lord of LowEnd Content at LowEndBox

I'm raindog308, techno polymath and long-time LowEndTalk community Administrator. My technical interests include all things Unix, perl, python, golang, shell scripting, vintage operating systems such as MVS, and relational database systems such as Oracle, PostgreSQL, and MySQL.

I also enjoy using LEBs! I have an empire of little guys for VPNs, larger guys for apps, and big guys for databases and storage. When I'm not in front a screen I'm into German Shepherd dogs, quality knives, target shooting, theology, tabletop roleplaying games, and forest hiking.

I enjoy writing technical articles here on LowEndBox to help people get more out of their systems. You can find me on LowEndTalk @raindog308

Latest posts by raindog308 (see all)

• New Spy Thriller!Two HR Companies Square Off in Shocking Corporate Espionage Battle - March 18, 2025
• LAST CHANCE on Lifetime Pricing: CraneMail Lifetime Plans Go Up In Price Starting April 1st, 2025 - March 17, 2025
• This Week on ESPN 8 (The Ocho): World Server Throwing Championship 2025! - March 16, 2025