On Sat, Nov 27, 2010 at 2:43 AM, Stan Hoeppner
<stan@hardwarefreak.com> wrote:
Mag Gam put forth on 11/26/2010 11:14 PM:
> unloading unnecessary modules
If they are unnecessary modules, the kernel won't load them in the first
place, as the hardware they interface with doesn't exit. If they're not
loaded, how can you unload them?
I think you need to provide us with _your_ definition of "unnecessary".
I suppose he's talking about that modules loaded for hardware that it's
present but unused, for example: the sound card. For my servers I
generally buy "clons" and they have an embedded sound card. So, we don't
need the sound modules loaded at startup.
Another example (maybe) is the USB, mouse, SATA/PATA when we have a SCSI controller, etc.
If you're really that concerned about kernel footprint and performance,
you can always roll your own kernel, as I do, building in the drivers
you know you need, none that you don't, and disable loadable module
support. However, this can get tricky if you don't know precisely what
you're doing.
I don't know. I decided long ago not to compile the kernel anymore. I do prefer blacklisting modules instead. But, it's only my opinion.
--
Stan