[Techtalk] Automatic loading of network card module after kernel upgrade

[Nicole Zimmerman]

It is possible that the network card you had was either:

1. Compiled into the kernel
2. Done "the other way" (via modutils and /etc/modules.conf).

When you initially installed, if you had to select your network card from
the menu (I forget the exact title, but you have to put in the drivers
disks and then you can select modules), you were doing so in "modconf".
"modconf" is another way to accomplish the same goal (checking off modules
to be loaded at boot time). It's a pretty ncurses app that lets you
select and deselect modules. I am not sure precisely what modconf does,
but then I don't use it ;o)

Like Conor pointed out, there is the /etc/modules.conf file, which in
debian is controlled by modutils/update-modules (and the files
/etc/modutils/*, the most important to you being /etc/modutils/local).
This may be how modconf works and may be what the default way is. 

-nicole

At 03:25 on Jul 22, Therese Gustafsson combined all the right letters to say:

> Thanks!
> But how does the 2.2.20 kernel know which network card
> 
> I have? There was no other line in /etc/modules except
> 
> af_packet (don't know what that is...). Does it get 
> that information from some other file? I'm just 
> curious...