How to blacklist kernel modules?

Question

How do I disable loading of unnecessary kernel modules. Kernel 3.2.4

Answer 1

Note: blacklisting will not work for modules which are built into the kernel image (i.e. not loaded via a separate .ko file. The only way to disable such modules is via a kernel parameter (if available) or by recompiling the kernel.

Just open your /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist file and add drivername using following syntax:

blacklist driver-name

EDIT: In later versions since 12.10 (12.04?) the file is /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf

Reboot your box and use lsmod command to show the status of modules in the Linux Kernel

Note: here driver-name is the name of your desired blacklist driver. For example, If you wanted to disable the NIC card driver, you can find the name of kernel driver for your LAN card by using the command lspci -v command in a terminal.
For Example my output was :

........
........ 
6:00.0 Ethernet controller: Broadcom Corporation NetLink BCM5906M Fast Ethernet PCI Express (rev 02)
    Subsystem: Lenovo Device 3861
    Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 46
    Memory at b8000000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64K]
    Expansion ROM at  [disabled]
    Capabilities: 
    Kernel driver in use: tg3
    Kernel modules: tg3
........
........

Here, I see the driver is tg3. so you need to write tg3(or your driver) in the place of driver-name.

As reported by some users you might need to sudo update-initramfs -u for the changes to apply.

Plenty of info can be found here.

Answer 2

You can also temporarily blacklist them on the grub command line (linux line) when you boot with the syntax

module_to_blacklist.blacklist=yes

Answer 3

Another way to blacklist modules in at least Ubuntu 16.04 LTS is by adding the following line to the kernel command line:

modprobe.blacklist=MODULE_NAME

Using the /etc/modprobe system is the best way, but this is an alternative that can be used in a pinch by editing your GRUB command line at boot.

This can also be made permanent by editing /etc/default/grub and adding to the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT variable. For example, in my /etc/default/grub I have:

GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash modprobe.blacklist=nouveau"

Then I run update-grub2, then update-initramfs -u. After a reboot, you'll be free of the module, so long as nothing loads it after boot.

This method also works in EL variants (RHEL, CentOS, SciLinux), but you'll have to use that distro's methods to update grub and the initrd.

(Note to those trying to blacklist nouveau: Make sure to not load X by running systemctl set-default multi-user.target, otherwise when X starts it'll load nouveau again!)

Answer 4

In more recent releases, you need to use the install directive in your blacklist file

install modulename /bin/false

Replace "modulename" above with the name of the module. This will forcibly prevent its loading.

You can find more info about the install directive in the manual for modprobe.conf

man modprobe.conf

Answer 5

None of these solutions worked on 16.04 LTS for i915.ko.

The (dirty) solution I found was to rename

/lib/modules/4.4.0-22-generic/kernel/drivers/gpu/drm/i915/i915.ko
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/modesetting_drv.so
/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/intel_drv.so

Unfortunately, external VGA screen is not recognised anymore :{