The frame buffer drivers depend heavily on four data structures. These structures are declared in include/linux/fb.h. They are fb_info, fb_var_screeninfo, fb_fix_screeninfo and fb_monospecs. The last three can be made available to and from userland.

fb_info defines the current state of a particular video card. Inside fb_info, there exists a fb_ops structure which is a collection of needed functions to make fbdev and fbcon work. fb_info is only visible to the kernel.

fb_var_screeninfo is used to describe the features of a video card that are user defined. With fb_var_screeninfo, things such as depth and the resolution may be defined.

The next structure is fb_fix_screeninfo. This defines the properties of a card that are created when a mode is set and can't be changed otherwise. A good example of this is the start of the frame buffer memory. This "locks" the address of the frame buffer memory, so that it cannot be changed or moved.

The last structure is fb_monospecs. In the old API, there was little importance for fb_monospecs. This allowed for forbidden things such as setting a mode of 800x600 on a fix frequency monitor. With the new API, fb_monospecs prevents such things, and if used correctly, can prevent a monitor from being cooked. fb_monospecs will not be useful until kernels 2.5.x.