[NBLUG/talk] Debian loadable kernel modules

[ME]

/etc/modules includes a list of modules that you wish to explicitly load
each time.

There is some ability for Linux to auto-detect what modules may be needed
in order to gain support for a filesystem or device. Also, module
dependencies can cause other modules to be loaded when requests are made
to load other modules.

Also, some services may also be configured in their startup scripts to
load an unload modules. Consider some netatalk startup scripts that load
the appletalk module and then unload it when netatalk is stopped. Also,
consider some pcmcia-cs.

Rob Orsini said:
> I'm confused about how Debian knows what kernel modules to load on
> startup.  When I look at /etc/modules I see only a fraction of what's
> listed using lsmod.  The reason I got thinking about this is because I got
> into some trouble over the weekend after a abrupt shutdown of my laptop,
> and thereafter my nic modules were not loading (???).

This does not make sense. If you upgraded a kernel without upgrading your
pcmcia-cs or other 3rd party modules, I could see something like this
happeneing. However, if no kernel upgrade, and no modifications to modules
or the configurations of the modules were done between the last boot where
everything loaded and the recent boot where they did not auto-load, I
would examine changes to hardware or settings for hardware in BIOS.

> Anyway, I looked at
> Ron's configuration (he's got the same box with an identical install) and
> managed to insmod the two modules that I knew I needed but was left
> confused about the whole business of kernel modules.

During the initial installation of Debian, when you specify what modules
to load, those modules should be added to the list of modules in
/etc/modules for auto-loading each boot.

Try adding the modules names you just insmodded to the list.

> I'm guessing that
> some of the other modules listed from lsmod are based on dependencies from
> modules in /etc/modules but I don't think that accounts for
> everything.

Sure. Some are mentioned above.

> Can someone clear the dust for me or point me to the
> appropriate man page/HOWTO?

man -k module | more
(might offer some man pages and of course debian does the /usr/doc thing
for most things/packages.)

-ME