Boot time module configuration - stored in initrd.img?

[Neal Lippman <nl@lippman.org>]

I noted strange behavoir after installing linux-kernel-2.4.21-4.On
reboot, a host of modules that I had never selected with modconf were
installed. They were not in /etc/modules, however, so the kernel upgrade
had clearly not modified this file (although they did appear selected in
modconf - perhaps modconf determines what is installed by looking at
/proc/modules rather than /etc/modules?).

Anyway, "strings /boot/initrd.img-2.4.21" did show all of these modules
listing, making me think that these modules are hardcoded into the
initrd image.

If this is the case, then of course removing them with modconf will have
no effect on reboot time - so if I don't want all these modules, there
is no alternative but to compile my own kernel - or add a boot time
script to remove the unwanted modules, which is far less elegant.

Is this an accurate understanding of what is going on here?

Thanks.
nl