Mike Garfias wrote:

>I can't say for sure (never used mandrake), but 'fb', generally refers to
>'frame buffer'.  This is a kernel driver that runs the vid card, that X talks
>to to display the GUI.
>
>mike enriquez spoke forth with the blessed manuscript:
>  
>
>>I set up a dual boot with Mandrake and the choices I get at boot up are:
>>Linux
>>Linux nonfb
>>and of course the other one.
>>
>>What is "nonfb" I know this must be a silly question for all the pros
>>out there but this is a newbie asking?
>>
>>Thanks
>>Mike Enriquez
>>
>>    
>>

You'll find the frame buffer device[1] as an option in KNOPPIX as well.  
It's there as a sort of a fail safe mode for video, especially with 
older laptops.  It assures that if the hardware changes you can still 
boot into x window.  The friendly penguin (one per processor) at the top 
of the screen tells you you're in frame buffer mode.

Dennisk
[1] A framebuffer device is an abstraction for the graphic hardware. It 
represents the frame buffer of some video hardware, and allows 
application software to access the graphic hardware through a 
well-defined interface, so that the software doesn't need to know 
anything about the low-level interface stuff [Taken from Geert 
Uytterhoeven's framebuffer.txt in the linux kernel sources]  [Ed: quoted 
in http://www.faqs.org/docs/Linux-HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO.html]

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