On Wed, Aug 31, 2011 at 03:39:41PM +0200, Csanyi Pal wrote: > Hi, > > I have a rather impressive list of loaded modules. I'm not shure whether > are they really needed? > > How can I know which modules I don't need so I can have those > blacklisted?
Generally speaking, the kernel only loads modules it needs. Typical methods for this include udev discovering hardware (so the kernel loads the driver for it) or modules or user-space software depending on other modules (such as how the wireless system depends on some of the hashing modules). So, in a normal system, the modules are loaded because they are needed. (The corollary to this is that when modules are not needed, such as removing a device, they are unloaded). Blacklisting is usually only needed if you have a broken modules or there are two modules that service your needs and you need to use the other one (for example, a USB device might be detected as needed cdc-ether, but you know that actually it doesn't, so you blacklist cdc-ether). As Debian's stock kernel is designed for maximum flexibility, having a couple of hundred modules loaded is not unexpected. -- Darac Marjal
signature.asc
Description: Digital signature
