Learning to configure the kernel 2.6.x
 

I have a small problem configuring my kernel: I don't know what to write in the /etc/modprobe.conf file...

I am running "Linux from scratch" (http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/) - not a distribution per se, so I cannot just use the old file /etc/modules.conf (which also does not exist on my system, having built it by myself).

I have recently finished building the system, and I managed to compile a working kernel - and also upgraded to kernel 2.6.5. I installed the new version of module-init-tools.

I have looked at the documentation available with the 2.6.5 kernel, the old and new KERNEL HOWTO, the modprobe & modprobe.conf man pages, as well as various searches on the net regarding modprobe.conf, but I have not managed to find out how to write this file "from scratch", based on the hardware/options in the kernel I have. If anyone could help me by pointing out the documents to read, it would be great.

Hoping I didn't overlook any obvious documents and that I won't get killed because of my choice in "distro".

A script called "generate-modprobe.conf" should be included in module-init-tools

Yes, that script takes the /etc/modules.conf and rewrites it to the new format of the /etc/modprobe.conf. Since I don't have any of these files the script doesn't work for me.

Seeing how many people look at the topic made me think maybe I should post the guides I have used:

KERNEL-HOWTO (the old version - and the link here presents a not so readable version, but I cannot find any other version. Look on your hard drive for the same file, some distributions used to install them)
http://cvsview.tldp.org/index.cgi/LD...viewcvs-markup

An updated verion of the Kernel HOWTO.
http://www.digitalhermit.com/~kwan/kernel.html

...I'm still looking for an answer....

Well it may not be the answer you're looking for but what I do is avoid the problem entirely by not building any modules. If I need the kernel to do something I build it into the kernel and if I don't need it I don't build it. I still have to use one module though as I have an Nvidia graphics card and the driver for that is a module so my /etc/modprobe.conf has one line.
alias char-major-195* nvidia
I used to build the Alsa drivers separately as the kernel modules used to be worse than the user space ones But I think they improved a lot in the 2.6.5 kernel and I can't hear the difference now, so they get built into the kernel as well now.
I think modules are useful for distributions that need the kernel to be able to run on any machine. It allows them to compile every feature in without making the kernel unfeasibly huge and then they can just call the modules they need at run time.