Can You Run the Llama 2 LLM on DOS? (yeokhengmeng.com)
- Reference: 0177073317
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/04/21/0026255/can-you-run-the-llama-2-llm-on-dos
- Source link: https://yeokhengmeng.com/2025/04/llama2-llm-on-dos/
He's now sharing his latest project — [4]installing Llama 2 on DOS :
> Conventional wisdom states that running LLMs locally will require computers with high performance specifications especially GPUs with lots of VRAM. But is this actually true?
>
> Thanks to an open-source llama2.c project [original created by [5]Andrej Karpathy, I ported it to work so vintage machines running DOS can actually inference with Llama 2 LLM models. Of course there are severe limitations but the results will surprise you.
"Everything is open sourced with [6]the executable available here ," according to the [7]blog post . (They even addressed an early "gotcha" with DOS filenames being limited to eight characters.)
"As expected, the more modern the system, the faster the inference speed..." it adds. "Still, I'm amazed what can still be accomplished with vintage systems."
[1] https://www.slashdot.org/~yeokm1
[2] https://linux.slashdot.org/story/18/01/07/228222/can-you-install-linux-on-a-1993-pc
[3] https://slashdot.org/story/23/03/26/1811249/developer-builds-a-chatgpt-client-for-ms-dos
[4] https://yeokhengmeng.com/2025/04/llama2-llm-on-dos/
[5] https://news.slashdot.org/story/24/07/16/2039236/former-tesla-openai-exec-andrej-karpathy-founds-ai-native-education-startup
[6] https://github.com/yeokm1/dosllam2
[7] https://yeokhengmeng.com/2025/04/llama2-llm-on-dos/
Of course you can. (Score:1)
Any software can be run on DOS. Most anything referred to as "DOS" (be that ProDOS, MS-DOS, Dr-DOS, or whatever) is a set of code to load a program, maybe provide some set of drivers for an interface to some hardware, then get out of the way of the program running. The lack of a modern OS with its collection of code to manage a multi-user environment, graphical interface, or whatever, is hardly an impediment to running anything.
I'm just barely old enough to remember people running games under MS-DOS. At
Re: (Score:2)
> The issue with DOS is that the development tools basically ceased development around 1995.
[1]DJGPP [delorie.com] lasted until 2000, which is about one year after the source code of Quake was released. IIRC, it could compile the game without difficulty. And... it was an upgrade compared to pirated versions of Borland C++, Qbasic, etc.
> but software written for newer tools is usually not compatible with tools from 1995.
Software written for newer tools won't be comparable with MS-DOS, considering that they usually rely on gr
[1] https://www.delorie.com/djgpp/
Re: (Score:2)
That's not correct. Classic DOS has certain memory addressing limitations due to the hardware choices at the time. This implies an absolute upper bound on the size of the programs that can be executed (*). In other words, it is possible to define large computer programs that can never run in DOS (exercise for the reader).
(*) it is true that there are techniques, such as overlay programming, that can effectively extend these limits via disk swap mechanisms, but do note also that DOS has file access limitat
Turing complete (Score:2)
Turing completeness. Enough said.
why bother (Score:2)
Not sure why they bother. DOS is just a basic OS, you could run anything on it from the simplest to the most complex piece of software. The limitations are really only how much effort you are willing to put in to write the supporting functions you need. It is not a magic achievement, just someone willing to waste a lot of time.
DOS (Score:2)
Did they try pressing the Turbo button?
/only old people will get this
//mashes the Turbo button, every time
Now run Llama 2 on a smart fridge (Score:1)
Running AI models on random shit, has become the new running Doom on random shit.