Question about boot options in Mandrake

[emh]

I was just curious about something.

In Mandrake 8.2, here are my options in my LILO boot loader:

linux
linux-non fb
linux-failsafe
windows
floppy

I was wondering if anybody knew what the difference is between the "linux" option and the "linux-nonfb" option.

[voidmain]

It means "non-frame-buffer". Some video cards can not handle the frame buffer enabled kernel (I believe only applies to console/vitual terminals).

[Calum]

it used to apply to my video card. i had to use the non-fb option in red hat 7.0 and mandrake 8.0, and also i remember a mate of mine recompiled my kernel with some driver i found on the internet to get it to work.

Same hardware now works fine in mandrake 8.2 onwards (and i believe in red hat 7.2 onwards too).

I still don't know what the whole framebuffer thing is about though. i must look it up when i have time...

[almightyme]

Hey, the same is on my LILO, but what is the failsafe thing?

[Doogee]

try it and find out, dave. but im pretty sure that it boots to a command line or that twm(?) window mandager which is just a command line anyway.

[Calum]

it boots to X with minimal options, so you can make repairs et c. the reason it boots with minimal options is of course so that it doesn't load a program that is making your computer crash or behave weirdly.

and yes, it boots to X with one twm window open. in mandrake anyway.