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[ichi AT aggies.org]

sindi keesan wrote:
> 
> Modprobe is a slightly fancier version of insmod.  

Slightly fancier *and* much bigger.  modprobe is a perfect 
example of "user-friendly" bloat.  The purpose of modprobe 
is to eliminate module dependency problems.  For example, 
the ppp module is dependent on the slhc module.  That means 
you have to "insmod slhc" before "insmod ppp".  Otherwise, 
ppp will not work.  So, if you look in pppsetup, you will 
see:
-----------
insmod slhc
insmod ppp
-----------
A similar situation exists with the NE2000 network module.
It needs the 8390 module:
------------------
insmod 8390
insmod ne io=0x320
------------------

It is common for newbies to have problems with this.  They are 
unaware of the dependencies and simply try to insmod the target 
module.  modprobe solves this problem by using a table of module 
dependencies (/lib/modules/2.x.xx/modules.dep).  This table is
generated by the depmod command (which is usually run in one of 
the startup scripts).  Then a newbie can simply execute:
------------                  --------------------
modprobe ppp      -or-        modprobe ne io=0x320
------------                  --------------------
and the dependencies will be automatically found and installed
before installing the target module.

The overhead of modprobe is significant (that is why it is not 
in BasicLinux).  A complete modules.dep file is big and the 
running of depmod takes a noticeable amount of time on an old 
PC.  IMHO modprobe is not worth it.  insmod works just fine.
Many modules do not have dependencies, so a simple insmod works
just as well as a modprobe.  And for those modules that have
dependencies, you can look them up yourself in the modules.dep
file in Slackware 7.1 (/modules/2.2.16/modules.dep).

Cheers,
Steven