MODPROBE.CONF(5)MODPROBE.CONF(5)NAME
modprobe.d, modprobe.conf - Configuration directory/file for modprobe
DESCRIPTION
Because the modprobe command can add or remove more than one module,
due to module dependencies, we need a method of specifying what options
are to be used with those modules. All files underneath the /etc/mod‐
probe.d directory which end with the .conf extension specify those
options as required. (the /etc/modprobe.conf file can also be used if
it exists, but that will be removed in a future version). They can
also be used to create convenient aliases: alternate names for a mod‐
ule, or they can override the normal modprobe behavior altogether for
those with special requirements (such as inserting more than one mod‐
ule).
Note that module and alias names (like other module names) can have -
or _ in them: both are interchangable throughout all the module com‐
mands.
The format of and files under modprobe.d and /etc/modprobe.conf is sim‐
ple: one command per line, with blank lines and lines starting with '#'
ignored (useful for adding comments). A '\' at the end of a line
causes it to continue on the next line, which makes the file a bit
neater.
COMMANDS
alias wildcard modulename
This allows you to give alternate names for a module. For exam‐
ple: "alias my-mod really_long_modulename" means you can use
"modprobe my-mod" instead of "modprobe really_long_modulename".
You can also use shell-style wildcards, so "alias my-mod*
really_long_modulename" means that "modprobe my-mod-something"
has the same effect. You can't have aliases to other aliases
(that way lies madness), but aliases can have options, which
will be added to any other options.
Note that modules can also contain their own aliases, which you
can see using modinfo. These aliases are used as a last resort
(ie. if there is no real module, install, remove, or alias com‐
mand in the configuration).
options modulename option...
This command allows you to add options to the module modulename
(which might be an alias) every time it is inserted into the
kernel: whether directly (using modprobe modulename or because
the module being inserted depends on this module.
All options are added together: they can come from an option for
the module itself, for an alias, and on the command line.
install modulename command...
This is the most powerful primitive: it tells modprobe to run
your command instead of inserting the module in the kernel as
normal. The command can be any shell command: this allows you
to do any kind of complex processing you might wish. For exam‐
ple, if the module "fred" works better with the module "barney"
already installed (but it doesn't depend on it, so modprobe
won't automatically load it), you could say "install fred
/sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install fred",
which would do what you wanted. Note the --ignore-install,
which stops the second modprobe from running the same install
command again. See also remove below.
You can also use install to make up modules which don't other‐
wise exist. For example: "install probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe
e100 || /sbin/modprobe eepro100", which will first try to load
the e100 driver, and if it fails, then the eepro100 driver when
you do "modprobe probe-ethernet".
If you use the string "$CMDLINE_OPTS" in the command, it will be
replaced by any options specified on the modprobe command line.
This can be useful because users expect "modprobe fred opt=1" to
pass the "opt=1" arg to the module, even if there's an install
command in the configuration file. So our above example becomes
"install fred /sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-
install fred $CMDLINE_OPTS"
remove modulename command...
This is similar to the install command above, except it is
invoked when "modprobe -r" is run. The removal counterparts to
the two examples above would be: "remove fred /sbin/modprobe -r
--ignore-remove fred && /sbin/modprobe -r barney", and "remove
probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe -r eepro100 || /sbin/modprobe -r
e100".
blacklist modulename
Modules can contain their own aliases: usually these are aliases
describing the devices they support, such as "pci:123...".
These "internal" aliases can be overridden by normal "alias"
keywords, but there are cases where two or more modules both
support the same devices, or a module invalidly claims to sup‐
port a device: the blacklist keyword indicates that all of that
particular module's internal aliases are to be ignored.
allow_unsupported_modules [0|1]
In SUSE kernels, every kernel module has a flag 'supported'. If
this flag is not set loading this module will taint your kernel.
Setting this option to 0 disables loading of unsupported modules
and avoids tainting the kernel. This is typically set in
/etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules.
COPYRIGHT
This manual page Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.
SEE ALSOmodprobe(8), modules.dep(5)
19 April 2013 MODPROBE.CONF(5)