Problem with booting and running knoppix

[mzilikazi]

...
The 'undefined mode' error is because knoppix is set to default vga=791, booting vga=normal cures it .....

Let me show my ignornance here. What is 791? Should that number have some meaning to me, or to most people? And why would the default start-up mode of a general live distribution CD not be "normal"?

In laymans terms, vga=791 is the frambuffer device. You get the nice looking small text that way. vga=normal gives you the big ugly text.