The following are commonly used commands in modprobe configuration files:

alias

Creates an alternative name for a module. The alias can include shell wildcards. To create an alias for the sd-mod module:

alias block-major-8-* sd_mod

blacklist

Ignore a module's internal alias that's displayed by the modinfo command. This command is typically used in the following conditions:

• The associated hardware isn't required.

• Two or more modules both support the same devices.

• A module invalidly claims to support a device.

For example, to demote the alias for the frame-buffer driver cirrusfb, type:

blacklist cirrusfb

The /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf file prevents hotplug scripts from loading a module so that a different driver binds the module instead regardless of which driver happens to be probed first. If it doesn't already exist, you must create it.

install

Runs a shell command instead of loading a module into the kernel. For example, load the module snd-emu10k1-synth instead of snd-emu10k1:

install snd-emu10k1 /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install snd-emu10k1 && /sbin/modprobe snd-emu10k1-synth

options

Defines options for a module. For example, to define the nohwcrypt and qos options for the b43 module, type:

options b43 nohwcrypt=1 qos=0

remove

Runs a shell command instead of unloading a module. To unmount /proc/fs/nfsd before unloading the nfsd module, type:

remove nfsd { /bin/umount /proc/fs/nfsd > /dev/null 2>&1 || :; } ;
/sbin/modprobe -r --first-time --ignore-remove nfsd

For more information, see the modprobe.conf(5) manual page.