NAME

       modprobe - Add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel

SYNOPSIS

       modprobe [-v] [-V] [-C config-file] [-n] [-i] [-q] [-b] [modulename]
                [module parameters...]

       modprobe [-r] [-v] [-n] [-i] [modulename...]

       modprobe [-c]

       modprobe [--dump-modversions] [filename]

DESCRIPTION

       modprobe intelligently adds or removes a module from the Linux kernel: note that for
       convenience, there is no difference between _ and - in module names (automatic underscore
       conversion is performed).  modprobe looks in the module directory /lib/modules/`uname -r`
       for all the modules and other files, except for the optional configuration files in the
       /etc/modprobe.d directory (see modprobe.d(5)).  modprobe will also use module options
       specified on the kernel command line in the form of <module>.<option> and blacklists in
       the form of modprobe.blacklist=<module>.

       Note that unlike in 2.4 series Linux kernels (which are not supported by this tool) this
       version of modprobe does not do anything to the module itself: the work of resolving
       symbols and understanding parameters is done inside the kernel. So module failure is
       sometimes accompanied by a kernel message: see dmesg(8).

       modprobe expects an up-to-date modules.dep.bin file as generated by the corresponding
       depmod utility shipped along with modprobe (see depmod(8)). This file lists what other
       modules each module needs (if any), and modprobe uses this to add or remove these
       dependencies automatically.

       If any arguments are given after the modulename, they are passed to the kernel (in
       addition to any options listed in the configuration file).

OPTIONS

       -a, --all
           Insert all module names on the command line.

       -b, --use-blacklist
           This option causes modprobe to apply the blacklist commands in the configuration files
           (if any) to module names as well. It is usually used by udev(7).

       -C, --config
           This option overrides the default configuration directory (/etc/modprobe.d).

           This option is passed through install or remove commands to other modprobe commands in
           the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.

       -c, --showconfig
           Dump out the effective configuration from the config directory and exit.

       --dump-modversions
           Print out a list of module versioning information required by a module. This option is
           commonly used by distributions in order to package up a Linux kernel module using
           module versioning deps.

       -d, --dirname
           Root directory for modules, / by default.

       --first-time
           Normally, modprobe will succeed (and do nothing) if told to insert a module which is
           already present or to remove a module which isn't present. This is ideal for simple
           scripts; however, more complicated scripts often want to know whether modprobe really
           did something: this option makes modprobe fail in the case that it actually didn't do
           anything.

       --force-vermagic
           Every module contains a small string containing important information, such as the
           kernel and compiler versions. If a module fails to load and the kernel complains that
           the "version magic" doesn't match, you can use this option to remove it. Naturally,
           this check is there for your protection, so using this option is dangerous unless you
           know what you're doing.

           This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line
           and any modules on which it depends.

       --force-modversion
           When modules are compiled with CONFIG_MODVERSIONS set, a section detailing the
           versions of every interfaced used by (or supplied by) the module is created. If a
           module fails to load and the kernel complains that the module disagrees about a
           version of some interface, you can use "--force-modversion" to remove the version
           information altogether. Naturally, this check is there for your protection, so using
           this option is dangerous unless you know what you're doing.

           This applies any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line and
           any modules on which it depends.

       -f, --force
           Try to strip any versioning information from the module which might otherwise stop it
           from loading: this is the same as using both --force-vermagic and --force-modversion.
           Naturally, these checks are there for your protection, so using this option is
           dangerous unless you know what you are doing.

           This applies to any modules inserted: both the module (or alias) on the command line
           and any modules it on which it depends.

       -i, --ignore-install, --ignore-remove
           This option causes modprobe to ignore install and remove commands in the configuration
           file (if any) for the module specified on the command line (any dependent modules are
           still subject to commands set for them in the configuration file). Both install and
           remove commands will currently be ignored when this option is used regardless of
           whether the request was more specifically made with only one or other (and not both)
           of --ignore-install or --ignore-remove. See modprobe.d(5).

       -n, --dry-run, --show
           This option does everything but actually insert or delete the modules (or run the
           install or remove commands). Combined with -v, it is useful for debugging problems.
           For historical reasons both --dry-run and --show actually mean the same thing and are
           interchangeable.

       -q, --quiet
           With this flag, modprobe won't print an error message if you try to remove or insert a
           module it can't find (and isn't an alias or install/remove command). However, it will
           still return with a non-zero exit status. The kernel uses this to opportunistically
           probe for modules which might exist using request_module.

       -R, --resolve-alias
           Print all module names matching an alias. This can be useful for debugging module
           alias problems.

       -r, --remove
           This option causes modprobe to remove rather than insert a module. If the modules it
           depends on are also unused, modprobe will try to remove them too. Unlike insertion,
           more than one module can be specified on the command line (it does not make sense to
           specify module parameters when removing modules).

           There is usually no reason to remove modules, but some buggy modules require it. Your
           distribution kernel may not have been built to support removal of modules at all.

       -w, --wait=TIMEOUT_MSEC
           This option causes modprobe -r to continue trying to remove a module if it fails due
           to the module being busy, i.e. its refcount is not 0 at the time the call is made.
           Modprobe tries to remove the module with an incremental sleep time between each
           tentative up until the maximum wait time in milliseconds passed in this option.

       -S, --set-version
           Set the kernel version, rather than using uname(2) to decide on the kernel version
           (which dictates where to find the modules).

       --show-depends
           List the dependencies of a module (or alias), including the module itself. This
           produces a (possibly empty) set of module filenames, one per line, each starting with
           "insmod" and is typically used by distributions to determine which modules to include
           when generating initrd/initramfs images.  Install commands which apply are shown
           prefixed by "install". It does not run any of the install commands. Note that
           modinfo(8) can be used to extract dependencies of a module from the module itself, but
           knows nothing of aliases or install commands.

       -s, --syslog
           This option causes any error messages to go through the syslog mechanism (as
           LOG_DAEMON with level LOG_NOTICE) rather than to standard error. This is also
           automatically enabled when stderr is unavailable.

           This option is passed through install or remove commands to other modprobe commands in
           the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.

       -V, --version
           Show version of program and exit.

       -v, --verbose
           Print messages about what the program is doing. Usually modprobe only prints messages
           if something goes wrong.

           This option is passed through install or remove commands to other modprobe commands in
           the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable.

ENVIRONMENT

       The MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can also be used to pass arguments to modprobe.

COPYRIGHT

       This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. Maintained by
       Jon Masters and others.

SEE ALSO

       modprobe.d(5), insmod(8), rmmod(8), lsmod(8), modinfo(8) depmod(8)

AUTHORS

       Jon Masters <jcm@jonmasters.org>
           Developer

       Robby Workman <rworkman@slackware.com>
           Developer

       Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com>
           Developer