LinuxQuestions.org - How do I know wich modules I can unload.

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How do I know wich modules I can unload.

Hi there!

I use linux for about 4 months now and this question has always intrigued me. The thing is: a have a Pentium II CPU that is being configured to work as a Router/Firewall. It´s not properly configured yet. I started the Firewall script yesterday (I´m very new to this).

Well, the main thing is that when I type lsmod, a whole page of modules is showed on screen and I bet that a lot of these modules can be supressed. For example, my sound modules. They can all be unloaded (rmmod) or supressed at boot time. I do have an onboard soundcard but I don´t intend to use it. Another thread on this site helped me to find out how to unload modules at boot time (I was looking for /etc/modules.conf, and in FC3 the archive is /etc/modprobe.conf).

The information I am really looking forward to know is how do I know the importance of a loaded module. How do I know (based on what I intend to do with the machine) wich modules are indifferent to my needs, so that I can unload them.

Thanks a lot!
Palula Brasil.

All depends on your hardware. Also when doing an lsmod, it tells you if the module is being used or not, that should give you a notion of what you can remove and what you should keep.

First of all thank you trickykid.

I found the Used By column, but it looks really weird...
In the list of all modules (lsmod), I have two modules running. One for the eth0 (3c59x) and one for the eth1 (rtl8139xxx). It´s obvious that they are being used isn´t it?

On the used by column, appears: 0 and no other module is using it. That´s fine with me probably there really isn´t any module using it. But according to that judgement, if I for example we´re dumb enough to unload these two modules based on the "0" and no arguments after the "0", I would be unloading my two NIC´s. And that doesn´t seem right to mee...

So is that fair enough or is there more information than meets the eye?
How should I interpret the information in that column?

Thank in advance! :-)
Palula Brasil.

Can you paste the output of "lsmod" here in code tags?

Here it is.

Code:

Module                  Size  Used by

vfat                  14657  1

fat                    46177  1 vfat

sermouse                4929  0

md5                    4033  1

ipv6                  234753  8

parport_pc            24577  1

lp                    12077  0

parport                42121  2 parport_pc,lp,

autofs4                24389  0

sunrpc                160933  1

dm_mod                54869  0

ns558                  5441  0

gameport                4801  1 ns558

snd_cmi8330            12041  0

snd_sb16_dsp          14913  1 snd_cmi8330

snd_ad1848_lib        22081  1 snd_cmi8330

snd_pcm_oss            49017  0

snd_mixer_oss          17985  1 snd_pcm_oss

snd_pcm              100041  4 snd_cmi8330,snd_sb16_dsp,snd_ad1848_lib,snd_pcm_oss

snd_timer              30661  1 snd_pcm

snd_page_alloc          9673  1 snd_pcm

snd_sb_common          18369  2 snd_cmi8330,snd_sb16_dsp

snd                    55589  8 snd_cmi8330, snd_sb16_dsp, snd_ad1848_lib, snd_pcm_oss, snd_mixer_oss, snd_pcm, snd_timer, snd_sb_common

soundcore              9889  1 snd

8139too                26305  0

mii                    4673  1 8139too

3c59x                  36457  0

floppy                59249  1

ext3                  116809  2

jbd                    74969  1 ext3

By the way, I altered my modprobe.conf, commenting all the lines that don´t contain my NIC´s and that disn´t change a thing. Can you guys help me with that too?

Here is the modprobe.conf file:

Code:

alias eth0 3c59x

alias eth1 8139too

alias snd-card-0 snd-cmi8330

options snd-card-0 index=0

install snd-cmi8330 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-cmi8330 && /usr/sbin/alsactl restore >/dev/null 2>&1 || :

remove snd-cmi8330 { /usr/sbin/alsactl store >/dev/null 2>&1 || : ; }; /sbin/modprobe -r --ignore-remove snd-cmi8330

Every line reffering to souncards were commented. The only lines I left uncommented were the fist two lines. However, that didn´t work.

Please!!!
Can anyone help?! :-)