How can I temporarily disable a kernel module?

Question

I would like to temporarily (until next boot) disable a kernel module.

How can I do this?

http://askubuntu.com/questions/110341/how-to-blacklist-kernel-modules ;) — Rinzwind, Jul 06 '13 at 21:49
@Rinzwind I'm not trying to blacklist it. I just want to remove it until I reboot. — Seth, Jul 06 '13 at 21:55

score 10 · Accepted Answer · edited May 07 '18 at 04:54

Use lsmod to find the name of a kernel module about that you are interested in temporarily disabling. After you've found the name, use this command to disable the module:

sudo modprobe -r <module_name>

However, this command will fail with an error message something like FATAL: Module <module_name> is in use if a process is using:

the <module_name>
a module about that <module_name> directly depends on
any module about that <module_name> - through the dependency tree - depends on indirectly.

You can use lsmod | grep <module_name> to obtain the names of the modules which are preventing you from temporarily disabling a certain module (these module names are listed in the last column).

More about:

This doesn't however, disable or 'remove' buildin modules, which will give an FATAL: Module g_serial is builtin. error. — Tim Visee, Jun 16 '15 at 13:12
Your answer doesn't explain how to remove modules that are in use? What needs to be done after running the lsmod command? — Raleigh L., Jan 12 '24 at 21:38

score 4 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 06 '13 at 21:48

4

It appears:

sudo modprobe -r moduleName

Achieves what I want. The module is removed and reloaded upon reboot.

answered Jul 06 '13 at 21:48

Seth

58,122

1

however, the module is reloaded if Linux thinks it's needed. This may or may not be what you want. – Frederick Nord Jun 20 '16 at 09:23
In my case it's not what I want. I want to add the module to the blocklist temporarily – xdevs23 Jun 10 '23 at 22:40

How can I temporarily disable a kernel module?

2 Answers2