Modprobe and Insmod

Andy Green andy at warmcat.com
Wed Jul 26 09:34:23 UTC 2006


PFJ wrote:

>> whats the exact difference b/n Modprobe and Insmod, and which one is preferred
> 
> modprobe drags in any other modules required for it to run, insmod tries
> to insert the mod, but not the others it may require.

Insmod takes a path to the module you want to insert, whereas modprobe 
has a little database of what modules are present in 
/lib/modules/<current kernel version> generated by running depmod.  The 
little database captures the dependencies of what auxiliary modules are 
needed, eg, webcom module blah might demand various video and usb-video 
related modules.  So it's very much like the difference between running 
rpm and yum.

> Use modprobe.

Yes, modprobe works a lot better at the minor cost of having to stick 
new modules down /lib/modules/<current kernel version> and running 
depmod beforehand.

-Andy
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