Linux Kernel in a Nutshell

Name

FB — Support for frame buffer devices

The frame buffer device provides an abstraction for the graphics hardware. It represents the frame buffer of some video hardware and allows application software to access the graphics hardware through a well-defined interface, so the software doesn't need to know anything about the low-level (hardware register) stuff.

Frame buffer devices work identically across the different architectures supported by Linux and make the implementation of application programs easier and more portable; at this point, an X server exists which uses the frame buffer device exclusively. On several non-X86 architectures, the frame buffer device is the only way to use the graphics hardware.

You need a program called fbset to make full use of frame buffer devices. Please read Documentation/fb/framebuffer.txt and the Framebuffer-HOWTO at http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Framebuffer-HOWTO.html for more information.

Say yes here and to the driver for your graphics board if you are compiling a kernel for a non-x86 architecture. If you are compiling for the x86 architecture, you can say yes if you want to use the frame buffer, but it is not essential.

Please note that running graphical applications that directly touch the hardware (e.g. an accelerated X server) and that are not attuned to the frame buffer device may cause unexpected results.