linux-kernel-module-cheat/modprobe.md

modprobe

If you are feeling fancy, you can also insert modules with:

modprobe dep2
lsmod
# dep and dep2

This method also deals with module dependencies, which we almost don't use to make examples simpler:

• https://askubuntu.com/questions/20070/whats-the-difference-between-insmod-and-modprobe
• https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22891705/whats-the-difference-between-insmod-and-modprobe

Removal also removes required modules that have zero usage count:

modprobe -r dep2
lsmod
# Nothing.

but it can't know if you actually insmodded them separately or not:

modprobe dep
modprobe dep2
modprobe -r dep2
# Nothing.

so it is a bit risky.

modprobe searches for modules under:

ls /lib/modules/*/extra/

Kernel modules built from the Linux mainline tree with CONFIG_SOME_MOD=m, are automatically available with modprobe, e.g.:

modprobe dummy-irq