Re: Problems with /etc/modprobe.conf

[Stephen Powell <zlinuxman@wowway.com>]

On Thu, 11 Nov 2010 12:11:12 -0500 (EST), Rob Owens wrote:
> On Thu, Nov 11, 2010 at 11:40:15AM -0500, Stephen Powell wrote:
>> If the file /etc/modprobe.conf exists, then all the files in /etc/modprobe.d
>> are ignored.  The Debian distribution prefers the second method, multiple
>> files in /etc/modprobe.d, and all the official Debian packages are designed
>> to use that method.
> 
> Are you sure about that?  I've used modprobe.conf for stuff like lirc.
> If that caused modprobe.d to be ignored, I would have thought something
> would have broken.  But my systems work fine like that (at least 3 of
> them are like this -- all Lenny installs).

Well, that's the way it used to work when module-init-tools first came out,
replacing the older modutils package that was used with 2.4 kernels.
The man page for modprobe.d in Lenny seems to imply this as well.  The
second sentence under DESCRIPTION says ...

   "/etc/modprobe.conf (or, if that does not exist, all files under the
   /etc/modprobe.d directory) specifies those options, as required."

But that is changing.  The Squeeze version of the man page reads differently.

   "All files underneath the /etc/modprobe.d directory which end with the
   .conf extension specify those options as required.  (the /etc/modprobe.conf
   file can also be used if it exists, but that will be removed in a future
   version)."

It's not clear from the Squeeze man page if /etc/modprobe.conf supersedes
or merely supplements the files in /etc/modprobe.d, but I'm guessing based on
historic behavior that it supersedes it.  In any case, it looks like a
future version of module-init-tools will eliminate /etc/modprobe.conf;
so it might be a good idea to wean yourself off of it.

-- 
  .''`.     Stephen Powell    
 : :'  :
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