Re: loaded module waste

30 Jan 2006 18:55 UTC, Felix Miata typed:
> The shortest has 37 entries, the longest 87, and all use kernels 2.6.1x.
> Man lsmod really doesn't describe the output.

Hotplug is one thing that seems to load up absolutely loads of modules,
many of which aren't required. Having tracked down what you don't need,
place them in /etc/hotplug/blacklist to prevent them being loaded.

> 1-How does one determine exactly which modules are required?

You need what you need :-) Try 'modprobe -r <some module>' to remove
modules that you might not need. Your system won't let you remove modules
that are in use, probably.

> 2-How does one either prevent unnecessary modules from loading, or
> automatically unload unneeded ones?

See above and/or edit the init.d scripts that are loading your modules.

> 3-Will keeping unnecessary modules unloaded noticeably improve
> performance?

I've graduated from systems that were regarded as hot if they had 16MB
of RAM and so got used to ripping out unwanted modules. Don't have stuff
sitting around in memory if you don't need it.
.