1MODPROBE.CONF(5) MODPROBE.CONF(5)
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6 modprobe.d, modprobe.conf - Configuration directory/file for modprobe
7
9 Because the modprobe command can add or remove more than one module,
10 due to module dependencies, we need a method of specifying what options
11 are to be used with those modules. All files underneath the /etc/mod‐
12 probe.d directory which end with the .conf extension specify those
13 options as required. (the /etc/modprobe.conf file can also be used if
14 it exists, but that will be removed in a future version). They can also
15 be used to create convenient aliases: alternate names for a module, or
16 they can override the normal modprobe behavior altogether for those
17 with special requirements (such as inserting more than one module).
18 Note that module and alias names (like other module names) can have -
20 or _ in them: both are interchangable throughout all the module com‐
21 mands.
22 The format of and files under modprobe.d and /etc/modprobe.conf is sim‐
24 ple: one command per line, with blank lines and lines starting with '#'
25 ignored (useful for adding comments). A '\' at the end of a line causes
26 it to continue on the next line, which makes the file a bit neater.
27
29 alias wildcard modulename
30 This allows you to give alternate names for a module. For exam‐
31 ple: "alias my-mod really_long_modulename" means you can use
32 "modprobe my-mod" instead of "modprobe really_long_modulename".
33 You can also use shell-style wildcards, so "alias my-mod*
34 really_long_modulename" means that "modprobe my-mod-something"
35 has the same effect. You can't have aliases to other aliases
36 (that way lies madness), but aliases can have options, which
37 will be added to any other options.
38 Note that modules can also contain their own aliases, which you
40 can see using modinfo. These aliases are used as a last resort
41 (ie. if there is no real module, install, remove, or alias com‐
42 mand in the configuration).
43 options modulename option...
45 This command allows you to add options to the module modulename
46 (which might be an alias) every time it is inserted into the
47 kernel: whether directly (using modprobe modulename or because
48 the module being inserted depends on this module.
49 All options are added together: they can come from an option for
51 the module itself, for an alias, and on the command line.
52 install modulename command...
54 This is the most powerful primitive: it tells modprobe to run
55 your command instead of inserting the module in the kernel as
56 normal. The command can be any shell command: this allows you to
57 do any kind of complex processing you might wish. For example,
58 if the module "fred" works better with the module "barney"
59 already installed (but it doesn't depend on it, so modprobe
60 won't automatically load it), you could say "install fred
61 /sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install fred",
62 which would do what you wanted. Note the --ignore-install, which
63 stops the second modprobe from running the same install command
64 again. See also remove below.
65 You can also use install to make up modules which don't other‐
67 wise exist. For example: "install probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe
68 e100 || /sbin/modprobe eepro100", which will first try to load
69 the e100 driver, and if it fails, then the eepro100 driver when
70 you do "modprobe probe-ethernet".
71 If you use the string "$CMDLINE_OPTS" in the command, it will be
73 replaced by any options specified on the modprobe command line.
74 This can be useful because users expect "modprobe fred opt=1" to
75 pass the "opt=1" arg to the module, even if there's an install
76 command in the configuration file. So our above example becomes
77 "install fred /sbin/modprobe barney; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-
78 install fred $CMDLINE_OPTS"
79 remove modulename command...
81 This is similar to the install command above, except it is
82 invoked when "modprobe -r" is run. The removal counterparts to
83 the two examples above would be: "remove fred /sbin/modprobe -r
84 --ignore-remove fred && /sbin/modprobe -r barney", and "remove
85 probe-ethernet /sbin/modprobe -r eepro100 || /sbin/modprobe -r
86 e100".
87 blacklist modulename
89 Modules can contain their own aliases: usually these are aliases
90 describing the devices they support, such as "pci:123...". These
91 "internal" aliases can be overridden by normal "alias" keywords,
92 but there are cases where two or more modules both support the
93 same devices, or a module invalidly claims to support a device:
94 the blacklist keyword indicates that all of that particular mod‐
95 ule's internal aliases are to be ignored.
96
98 This manual page Copyright 2004, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation.
99
101 modprobe(8), modules.dep(5)
102 2005-06-01 MODPROBE.CONF(5)