I really hate this: what is loading my devices?

[wazow]

I am trying to optimize the power usage of my laptop using giudelines from powertop. In the meantime I managed to observe that:

1. my system always loads the modem modules (snd_intel8x0m)
2. my system always loads and starts net.eth0 (tg3 module) and net.eth1 (ipw2100)

These cost quite a lot of power. I never use my modem, and I only use one interface at a time. I would only like to get the one in the runlevel started. However something (what???) is starting both of them, regardless of whether the interface is in the runlevel or not. Also all three kernel modules are loaded, even though they are not mentioned in /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6

In my kernel module autoloding is switched off. I am not running hotplug either.

During boot I see a message like "* Device initiated services: net.eth0 udev-postmount". I suspect this is the source of my issue. What the hell is producing this message?

Any hints?

[PaulBredbury]

Use /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

[wazow]

Use /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Thanks a lot. It works!

I would still like to understand what is going on. Is that udev loading these? What is the difference between udev and hotplug?

[i92guboj]

Use /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

Thanks a lot. It works!

I would still like to understand what is going on. Is that udev loading these? What is the difference between udev and hotplug?

udev can do what hotplug and coldplug did in the past, and much more. That is just a part of its functionality. I am not sure, but I don't think hot/coldplug are maintained anymore, look at the snapshot dates:

Code: Select all

* sys-apps/hotplug
     Available versions:  20030805-r2 20030805-r3 (~)20040105 20040401 (~)20040920 20040923 20040923-r1 20040923-r2

Everyone using a modern distro should be using udev nowadays. Note that, anyway, the devfs support has been removed from the kernel, so, you either use udev or maintain a static /dev/ filesystem manually.