topic Re: modprobe -r eth0 in Operating System - Linux

modprobe -r eth0

Pando — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 02:48:13 GMT

dear gurus,

my colleague had accidently executed modprobe -r eth0. therfore eth0 will not be available. will linux still boot?
If it has error? how do i boot it again normally? Both my colleague and i are new to linux. Can you guide us in step by step procedure on booting to single mode? then how do i bring back the eth0? thanks

Re: modprobe -r eth0

TY 007 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:24:39 GMT

Hello Pando,

Login via console as root.

Issue command: # modprobe -a eth0

Did a testing just now on above & it works !!!

Thanks

Re: modprobe -r eth0

TY 007 — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 04:33:36 GMT

Hello Pando,

Additional Information.

# cat /etc/modprobe.conf
alias eth0 tg3

# lsmod | grep tg3
tg3 xxxxx 0

# man modprobe
-a --all
Insert all modules matching the given wildcard. This option is
provided for backwards compatibility: see find(1) and base-
name(1) for a more flexible alternative.

Thanks

Re: modprobe -r eth0

Matti_Kurkela — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 09:08:59 GMT

The effects of modprobe commands are not persistent: if the module for eth0 was loaded automatically in the previous boot, it will be loaded automatically again when the system is rebooted.

The modprobe command will not make any changes to anything on the disk: it only adds or removes driver modules in RAM.

You need to do something else (see the documentation of your Linux distribution) to make the change effective across reboots, if you wish.

Generally, even if the driver module for network interface eth0 was permanently removed or disabled from loading, Linux would very probably still boot. If some processes require access to DNS servers while booting (like sendmail) the boot might be much slower than normal: a failing DNS query may take several minutes to time out.

If "modprobe -r eth0" successfully removed the driver module for eth0 from memory, "modprobe eth0" should bring it back without any need to reboot.

Even just starting the network interface with "ifup eth0" would probably be sufficient: the system will notice that the driver for eth0 is not loaded, and will try to load it automatically unless something prevents it from doing so.

Note that "eth0" is probably not the real name of the driver module, but an alias:
run "modprobe -c | grep eth0" to see the real name of the module.

MK

Re: modprobe -r eth0

Pando — Fri, 24 Aug 2007 20:20:02 GMT

thanks for that enlightment...
my system is now back to normal...