Proper way to autoload modules (/etc/rc.modules)?

[Axel Thimm]

On Mon, Apr 04, 2005 at 10:56:03AM +0200, Peter Backlund wrote:
> sön 2005-04-03 klockan 13:26 +0200 skrev Axel Thimm:
> > Hi,
> > 
> > what is the recommended way to automatically load some modules upon
> > bootup?
> 
> The "correct" way to autload modules would really be to load-on-demand,
> which is (as you probably know) configured in /etc/modprobe.conf. The
> art of aliasing has always been a bit obscure, imo. As far as I
> understand, you can load-on-demand when accessing /dev files based on
> char-major, for example
> 
> alias char-major-195 nvidia
> 
> which would load the nvidia module when any /dev/nvidia* device is
> accessed (they have char-major 195).

Not all modules have a /dev entry, think capabilities (if built as a
module, not the case in RH kernels, yet). And udev doesn't make it
really easy on you to depend on /dev entries. In fact udev discourages
usage of static entries (that's its purpose after all).

> But then there are things like "alias sound-slot-0 foo" and "alias
> eth0 bar", that don't have a corresponding /dev node...I have no
> idea how that works really. If anyone knows a good place to read up
> on that, I'd be grateful.

Check the init scripts (mainly rc.sysinit), the userland explicitely
probes these, or even greps through modprobe's dumped config. Also try
running kmodule.

> > If there is no better mechanism, then please consider shipping an
> > /etc/rc.modules that sources in /etc/rc.modules.d/* or similar, so
> > packages can simply drop in a module loading script.
> 
> I'd like to see (and this has been suggested before)
> an /etc/modprobe.conf.d/, where modprobe.conf snippets can be
> placed.

I second that, it would solve another (also very important) problem,
paired to the one mentioned here.

> It would make 3:rd party kernel module packaging easier and cleaner.

Or even kudzu's and friends' /etc/modprobe.conf modifications. I'm
always confused when system-config-network rewrites my main
/etc/modprobe.conf.
-- 
Axel.Thimm at ATrpms.net
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