MODPROBE(8)

📦
version 34.3 · 20 versions
, in arch rolling

💖 MODPROBE — the modprobe(8) page, but make it a group chat 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're talking about modprobe — the little kmod tool that adds and removes modules from the Linux Kernel. no cap. 🧚

✨ 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]

look at that. four whole vibes. pick your fighter. 🎀

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

modprobe intelligently adds or removes a module from the Linux kernel. and because convenience is the whole personality: there is no difference between _ and - in module names — automatic underscore conversion is performed, so go off, type whichever one your fingers feel like. ✨

modprobe looks in the module directory /lib/modules/uname -r`` for all the modules and other files, except for the optional configuration files (see modprobe.d(5)). it 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>. iconic behaviour ngl.

💀 heads up bestie: 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). not the tool's fault, the kernel is just being the kernel. 🙈

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. it's giving "meal prep but for kernel modules". 🍓

if any arguments are given after the modulename, they are passed to the kernel — in addition to any options listed in the configuration file. 💖

when loading modules, modulename can also be a path to the module. If the path is relative, it must explicitly start with "./". Note that this may fail when using a path to a module with dependencies not matching the installed depmod database. so like, cute idea, occasionally tragic outcome. 😭

👑 OPTIONS 👑

twenty-three of them. yes we're listing all of them. yes they all matter. periodt. 💜

  • -a, --all — Insert all module names on the command line. all of them. every single one. no crumbs. 🫶
  • -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 *directory, --config=directory — This option overrides the default configuration directory. See modprobe.d(5). 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. just a little peek behind the curtain, bestie. ✨
  • --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. packaging girlies, this one's for you. 💅
  • --show-exports — Print out a list of symbols exported by the module. This option is commonly used to inspect the function list, while investigating loading of modules with partial or missing dependencies. detective mode activated 🔍
  • -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. main character energy: it refuses to take credit for nothing. 💖
  • --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 to 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 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. fake it till you make it, but make it a debugging tool. 💅
  • -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. shhh bestie, it still knows. 🤫
  • -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. 💀
  • --remove-holders — This option causes modprobe to remove the mentioned module(s), alongside other modules that depend on it/them — aka the reverse dependency list. taking the whole friend group down with you, respectfully. 🫶
  • *-w *TIMEOUT_MSEC, --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. persistence!! we love to see it. ✨
  • *-S *version, --set-version=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. slay, brief, iconic. 👑
  • -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. narrator mode ON. 🗣️

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the MODPROBE_OPTIONS environment variable can also be used to pass command line arguments to modprobe. The format is intentionally left undocumented, since the use by third-party tools and scripts is discouraged. bestie, the mystery is the point. 🙈

the environment variable originates with the implementation of the install rules. 🦋

This manual page originally Copyright 2002, Rusty Russell, IBM Corporation. 🫶

⭐ SEE ALSO ⭐

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

the whole kmod friend group 💖

😭 BUGS 😭

Please direct any bug reports to kmod's issue tracker at https://github.com/kmod-project/kmod/issues/ alongside with version used, steps to reproduce the problem and the expected outcome. yes, all of it — version, steps, expected outcome. don't just show up with "it's broken" and no receipts. 💀

🧚 AUTHORS 🧚

Numerous contributions have come from the linux-modules mailing list <linux-modules@vger.kernel.org> and Github. If you have a clone of kmod.git itself, the output of git-shortlog(1) and git-blame(1) can show you the authors for specific parts of the project. credit where credit is due, always. ✨

Lucas De Marchi <lucas.de.marchi@gmail.com> is the current maintainer of the project. thank you for your service, king 🫡👑

and that's the whole page, bestie!! this was kmod's modprobe(8) from 2026-10-30 — shipped as part of kmod, now go forth and load a module responsibly 💖🎀🦋✨🌸💅🫶👑🌈⭐💜

📦 where this page comes from
  • arch rolling: kmod 34.3-1 · LGPL-2.1-or-later AND GPL-2.0-or-later
  • 💖 girlified by deepseek-ai/DeepSeek-V4.1-Flash on : a language model's rewrite of the original, under its terms