So yea, I've got the following in my /etc/modprobe.conf.
I've discovered that the only way I can get sound to work with my TV card is by loading msp3400 and bt878 before loading bttv. With 2.4, this used to be managable with pre-install, but it looks like now 2.6 has changed the syntax slightly.
The problem is, when I have that line in my /etc/modprobe.conf, modprobe seems to go trigger-happy and keeps spawning process after process (I presume its recursively calling modprobe bttv over and over again).
I was under the impression that the --ignore-install option to modprobe would ignore the install line for the given module in /etc/modprobe.conf, though this behavior leads me to believe its not the case. Somehow its ignoring --ignore-install. Manually doing the following after boot-up will "enable" sound correctly:
I'd like to automate this, without hacking into /etc/rc.local type files. Any ideas on the modprobe ignoring --ignore-install?

I don't have a good answer to your question, but my answer is probably better than no answer.

Maybe one of the other modules like bt878 is internally installing bttv? Could you check, e.g. run this:
# modprobe msp3400
# lsmod | grep bttv
# modprobe bt878
# lsmod | grep bttv
# modprobe bttv
# lsmod | grep bttv

Normally, bttv will automatically select which sound and tuner chip to use based on the card selection. So the correct way to fix your problem is to find the card number that matches your card. Try running this a few times with different numbers and see if you can find a number that works:
rmmod bttv; rmmod msp3400; rmmod bt878; modprobe bttv card=1 tuner=1; tvtime

There's another option to the bttv driver on whether or not to autoload the tuner and audio drivers. The default is 1. This is probably what causes the modprobe order to be important. Does this work:
# modprobe -r bt878
# modprobe -r msp3400
# modprobe -r bttv
# modprobe bttv autoload=0
# modprobe msp3400
# modprobe bt878

I guess I've got two problems here. One is the bttv modules behaving strangely, and the other is a possible bug in modprobe with regards to the --ignore-install option.

bttv
Ever since I got the card I've had strange module problems, even back in the old days (see a thread of mine from 3 years ago http://www.linuxquestions.org/questi...d.php?t=41357). Module loading order has *always* been the solution, and so now I'm working on figuring out the new modprobe syntax. Instead of pre-install we just have install. The 'bttv' module auto-detects my tuner & card correctly. It just fails to correctly load the sound portion. I still have trouble finding decent documentation on this online, though my wacky module loading order solution seems okay by me, given the void of information.

modprobe
I've not tested this, but it *seems* that modprobe has a bug that causes it to enter basically a forkbomb state. It appears to be ignoring the --ignore-install option, and continuously calls modprobe to re-install the 3 modules listed. This of course terrorizes the kernel, and eventually causes the system to completely lock up for lack of resources.

I just added the following line to my /etc/modprobe.conf on my fresh FC5 system:
It seems that disabling autoload did the trick. Sounds like bttv is loading something that takes over the sound card before the proper module can get a chance at it.