lsmod question (was....Sound issues using 2.4.18-bf2.4-xfs and SB Live! 5.1)

[Andy <list@firman.us>]

A side question if you don't mind.....
It is my understanding that people use modules
to make a lighter/smaller kernel.  Is that correct?
Other reasons....?
I have compiled kernels 30 times or so and most of the
time I have no modules loaded.  (maybe because I am clueless?)

Are modules supposed to load automatically?
For example, if I don't know my sound card on my laptop, and
I load every sound module when doing xconfig, and then 
upon first boot, does linux simply see what card I have and
then load appropriate module?
(never works for me....again clueless...)

You will see below he has smbfs as a module.
When I put the samba file system into my kernel as 
a module, and I run lsmod, there is nothing there.
Does it get loaded if I try to mount a samba server?

Confused.......

> sandbox:/usr/src/linux# lsmod
> Module                  Size  Used by    Not tainted
> pcmcia_core            41472   0
> parport_pc             25672   1  (autoclean)
> lp                      6912   0  (autoclean)
> parport                21696   1  (autoclean) [parport_pc lp]
> iptable_filter          1672   0  (autoclean) (unused)
> ip_tables              10392   1  [iptable_filter]
> lvm-mod                46816   0  (unused)
> nfsd                   42792   0  (unused)
> smbfs                  31248   0  (unused)
> binfmt_misc             5696   1
> binfmt_aout             4196   0
> usbcore                48064   0
> sound                  52812   0  (unused)
> soundcore               3236   2  [sound]
> 3c59x                  24624   1
> raid0                   3080   1
> raid1                  11820   0  (unused)
> raid5                  15784   0  (unused)
> xor                     8644   0  [raid5]
> nbd                    14724   0  (unused)
> linear                  1288   0  (unused)
> md                     43488   1  [raid0 raid1 raid5 linear]