how can i remove unused but loaded kernel modules?

[Nigel Henry]

On Saturday 09 June 2007 17:30, Eric wrote:
> At 11:07 AM 6/9/2007, Nigel Henry wrote:
>
> <NH>>>>>You could make entries for them in /etc/rc.d/rc.local, which is the
> last init script to be run. Something like. modprobe -r <module name><<<<<
>
> Good morning, Nigel.
>
> However, they'd still have to load during bootup, then they'd get removed
> as a final step in /etc/rc.d/rc.local.  I think what Mark wanted (Mark,
> please correct me if I'm wrong) is not to load them in the first place, so
> that bootup happens faster.
>
> (I seem to vaguely recall that part of an early mission statement for F7
> was to not load eleventy-gazillion processes and modules on bootup, so that
> bootup would happen faster... looks like that was one of the objectives
> that had to be deferred...)
>
> I'm far, far away from being any kind of an expert on Linux use of modules,
> but isn't it true that modules only get loaded if they are needed?  So, if
> Mark goes through all the startup services (in chkconfig, or
> system-config-services) and disables all the ones he doesn't want or need
> (which will probably be a lot of them), won't that result in modules not
> getting loaded that are assocuated with the eliminated startup processes?

I'd thought of that as well, but didn't mention it. It could be that certain 
services that are enabled, are needing to load specific modules. I've seen 
that there are many services started as default with a Fedora install that 
arn't needed, at least as far as I am concerned. As an example, the rpc 
stuff.
> I'd be wary of using /etc/rc.d/rc.local to remove modules previously
> loaded... they were loaded for a reason after all...

Agreed.
>
> Eric Poole
> Burgoyne, Nolet & Poole, Inc.
> www.bnpconsulting.com

Nigel.