Module Setup, Loading And Unloading

Modules are loaded using 'insmod' or 'modprobe'.

Both commands will accept either a file name (and try to load the named file) or a file name prefix (without the '.o' extension) and then look for the module file somewhere under /lib/modules/<kernel-version>/... or a similar location.

'insmod' will just try to load the module given on the command line.

'modprobe' will also try to use module dependencies in order to load any modules this module requires. 'modprobe' also processes /etc/conf.modules in order to find module parameters and aliases.