Special Edition Using Linux®, Sixth Edition

Module Management

Kernel modules can be loaded manually as well as automatically. Typically, a system administrator starts off manually loading modules until he becomes familiar with the process (and with which modules he really wants to load on a regular basis); he then moves on to loading modules automatically.

Familiarity is not the only reason to do this, however. Many modules require that special behavior-altering parameters be passed to them before they can load successfully. Without experimenting with these parameters and figuring out exactly which ones are needed, a few things might happen.

Sometimes the module might load with incorrect settings, such as those for the interrupt and I/O port. These two settings have not prohibited the older ...