Persistent Module Loading; Additional Resources; Installed Documentation - Red Hat ENTERPRISE LINUX 4 System Administration Manual

For example, the command
/sbin/rmmod e100
unloads the e100 kernel module.
Another useful kernel module utility is modinfo. Use the command /sbin/modinfo to display
information about a kernel module. The general syntax is:
/sbin/modinfo [options]<module>
Options include -d, which displays a brief description of the module, and -p, which lists the
parameters the module supports. For a complete list of options, refer to the modinfo man page (man
modinfo).

37.2. Persistent Module Loading

Kernel modules are usually loaded directly by the facility that requires them, which is given correct
settings in the /etc/modprobe.conf file. However, it is sometimes necessary to explicitly force the
loading of a module at boot time.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux checks for the existence of the /etc/rc.modules file at boot time, which
contains various commands to load modules. The rc.modules should be used, and notrc.local
because rc.modules is executed earlier in the boot process.
For example, the following commands configure loading of the foo module at boot time (as root):
# echo modprobe foo >> /etc/rc.modules
# chmod +x /etc/rc.modules
Tip
This approach is not necessary for network and SCSI interfaces because they have their
own specific mechanisms.

37.3. Additional Resources

For more information on kernel modules and their utilities, refer to the following resources.

37.3.1. Installed Documentation

• lsmod man page — description and explanation of its output.
• insmod man page — description and list of command line options.
• modprobe man page — description and list of command line options.
• rmmod man page — description and list of command line options.
• modinfo man page — description and list of command line options.
Persistent Module Loading
339