effect of unused kernel modules

[rpdumps]

Hello All,
There are certain kernel modules which i don't require to be loaded on boot.
Is it going consume memory/cpu if I leave them loaded ?

Thanks
Padmanabhan

[Hlingler]

Hello:

Yes, unused kernel modules will consume some memory, depending of course on their individual size, but should not consume CPU time. If you can't stop the kmods from being automatically loaded during start-up, another way to automatically remove those modules is to add a line in /etc/rc.d/rc.local:
modprobe -r <module-name>

V

[rpdumps]

Hello
thanks for the reply. these modules are not unloaded even after entries at
/etc/modprobe.conf and /etc/rc.d/rc.local

snd_timer
snd_page_alloc
snd_hwdep
snd
soundcore

Are these modules cannot be unloaded ?

[Edit] -- these modules still show up with " lsmod "" command output and when I try to remove the module by modprobe -r < module>, I get the following error msg.

FATAL: Module off not found

[Hlingler]

Those are all sound-related modules, and almost certainly cannot be unloaded due to inter-dependencies: you cannot unload modules that are in use, or required by other modules. If they are listed by lsmod, they probably are needed by the sound driver(s). Look ate the list of dependencies returned by lsmod:

snd                    44517  19 snd_hda_intel,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_seq_device,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_pcm,snd_timer,snd_hwdep
snd_hda_intel         319865  8
snd_hwdep              10309  1 snd_hda_intel
snd_mixer_oss          16577  2 snd_pcm_oss
snd_page_alloc         11337  2 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm
snd_pcm                61637  4 snd_hda_intel,snd_pcm_oss
snd_pcm_oss            37441  0
snd_rtctimer            6753  0
snd_seq                44913  5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_seq_device          9933  3 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq
snd_seq_dummy           6853  0
snd_seq_midi_event      9921  1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq_oss            29633  0
snd_timer              21065  5 snd_rtctimer,snd_seq,snd_pcm
soundcore               9633  2 snd

V