modconf, /etc/modules, and /etc/mkinitrd/modules - differences??
Over the years I have developed a few personal tricks to get proper
modules loaded at boot time for my NIC, Sound Card, and CD Burner etc.
With the advent of the new 2.4.XX kernels and the use of initrd in the
current kernels in Woody, my old tricks don't seem to work as well.
Some kernel-images come with a set of functions pre-compiled into the
kernel, others don't. It is hit-or-miss as to having various hardware
enabled on the initial bootup with a new kernel image, even if it worked
before. My most recent experience was with going from the
kernel-image-2.4.17-bf4 package to the kernel-image-2.4.18-k6 package,
where my NIC didn't work until I inserted the module using modprobe.
1. Modconf doesn't seem to have any effect when I use it to "insert a
module into the kernel" anymore. In the above change, I had the
8139too.o module selected, but it didn't "work" on the new kernel-image.
2. Inserting a module name into the /etc/modules file "works", but this
doesn't seem to be a standard file anymore with fresh installs.
3. I really don't understand what should go in /etc/mkinitrd/modules,
except the "jbd", "ext3", and "ext2" modules really need to be there for
the system to boot from an ext3 partition. I have experimented with
placing NIC modules there, but they don't seem to have any effect.
Could someone who understands all this please give me a run-down on the
various pros and cons of using each these methods for getting a proper
set of modules loaded for long-term use? I understand how to use
modprobe for a short-term "testing" fix to get things going, but just
WHERE should I go to make these permanent after I find the right
combination?? I am just looking for some guidelines here...
Cheers & TIA,
-Don Spoon-
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