Updated July 31
Trouble with 'save '
Floppy controllers are awfully slow. With a fast computer/bus it may miss commands or data bits. COLOR.COM may not respond to 'save ' You must somehow copy COLOR.COM to sector 0 to make a bootable floppy.
- DOS can write a bootable floppy with DEBUG. In a DOS window type:
- debug COLOR.COM
- w100 0 0 7e
- q
- Unix can write a bootable floppy with dd or cp
- Linux/BSD can write a bootable floppy with fdimage.exe
Trouble with display
- The graphic controller must successfully locate the frame buffer
- It must support VESA mode 117 (1024x768 rgb: 565)
- The monitor must support same
- If COLOR.COM leaves the monitor dark, try typing 'save ' blindly. The qwerty word 'save ' is an alias for the colorForth word (terminal space). If the floppy is written, booting it may successfully display.
- If booting leaves the monitor dark, try booting both after power-up and after running Windows/Unix. Their initialization may be different than BIOS'. A dark monitor is probably caused by a non-zero OFFSET from the beginning of the frame buffer. Which does not have a standard location in PCI register space.
No guarantee
It may not be possible to run colorForth on your computer. You're welcome to examine the source and modify it to suit. Suggestions to expand the universe of acceptable computers are welcome.