I am developing a kernel module. Something wrong happens, so I want to remove this module. But the kernel says it is in use, even I add the force option to rmmod utility, it is still holding there.

rmmod **** -f
ERROR: Removing '****': Device or resource busy

Anyone knows what I should do, other than reboot.

Thanks,
Shawn

Try

You may need to remove modules that depend on the module. You may also need to stop a service that uses it. One example shutting down a NIC device before unloading the kernel module for that device. Not doing so could lead to a lockup.

Thank you both.

The module communicates with a user space partner using Netlink.
It might not have any other modules dependent on it.
Anyway, I want to know if I can get the information about what modules or kernel threads or anything depend on a certain given module.

BTW: Distro is short for distribution. Why the O? It is interesting. Maybe distribution, have you got any better explanation?

modinfo will show what other module is a dependency.

rmmod -f will only work if CONFIG_MODULE_FORCE_UNLOAD is enabled in the kernel ... not sure if modprobe -r has the same restriction.

1 members found this post helpful.

Run "lsmod". On the right hand side of the line are the modules that depend on the module on the left.
The nvidia and i2c_nforce2 depend on the i2c_core module, so I couldn't simply remove the i2c_core module.
The modinfo can supply more information about modules. Here you see that nvidia needs the i2c-core module.

modprobe -rf is more powerful than rmmod, sometimes it can remove an in use module. Don't know why, in some other cases, I just learned that.
So thank datopdog.

Module may not be removed by rmmod even if no other modules depend on it, according to the dependency information obtained from lsmod.

Thank you all. I learned a lot about modules and their dependency from you.

All the best,
Shawn

1 members found this post helpful.

I ran into the same problem, and came to realize that my module was installed with dkms. Therefore, I had to remove it with dkms, rather than with modprobe. The command will look something like this:


The <module-name> and <version-number> are from the dkms.conf file in the module package root directory.
The snippet $(uname -r) will return the current kernel version, so this will only remove the module from the current kernel, so it will remain for previous versions, or you can use --all to remove it from all kernels.

Once you do this, you can rebuild and reinstall the module with dkms if that is what you chose to do.

And that is also why you develop kernel stuff on VMs, and get rather used to rebooting them a lot ...

Actually, I find it advantageous to have a multiboot system, so I was never dead in the water. But I did want to get the new upgrade working - ever forward. In fact, I have Xubutnu installed twice, once on each of two different drives, as well as Ubuntu installed on both drives, plus Vector and Puppy both installed once on the second drive, in addition to Windows 10 which hardly ever gets used anymore (aren't 2 TB drives grand?). I also check out other distros from time to time to see if there's any I like.

As my wifi router is in another room, some months ago I also took my old Linksys 802.11-G router and turned it around as a wifi bridge, and run my wired adapter to that as a backup, so it appears to my network manager that I have both wired and wifi connections. The "wired" is slower than the wifi -- dog-slow for doing partition backups, but is fine for internet browsing, and helped me get through the period of having the true wifi adapter down. Normally I have it disabled and just use the wifi. If you don't have an old 802.11-g router in a closet somewhere, they are dirt cheap now, and make a good insurance policy as a bridge.

But good advice, sundialsvcs . I've worked with simulators before, but not VMware. I'll have to give it a spin. Thanks.