kernel modules

Find which Linux modules are used or needed

Table of Contents
  1. Tools
    1. With lspci
    2. With lsmod

Tools

With lspci

In the sample output below, see the kernel driver in use, and those available:

$ man lspci
# lspci -k
....
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti]
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau
        Kernel modules: nvidiafb, nouveau

With lsmod

See the "used by" field:

$ man lsmod
# lsmod
Module Size Used by
cfg80211 552960 0

/lib/modules/

Linux Kernel modules (drivers, etc.) are placed is sub-directories of /lib/modules/.
The sub-directories are named after the kernel release (version and build), e.g.:
(on an older system):

# ls -1 /lib/modules/
2.6.35-22-generic
2.6.38-11-generic
2.6.38-12-generic

You can use the output of 'uname -r' in scripts to get the proper directory to search in, according to the kernel release.

# uname -r
4.4.21-gentoo
# ls -1 /lib/modules/
4.4.21-gentoo
# tree -fia /lib/modules/`uname -r`/ | grep -i nvidia

Which linux kernel driver is being used: nvidia or nouveau?

Add here different ways to answer the above question.

With lspci

One way is to check the output of lspci:

# lspci -nnk | grep -iA2 vga
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller [0300]: NVIDIA Corporation GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] [10de:1380] (rev a2)
        Subsystem: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd GM107 [GeForce GTX 750 Ti] [1458:3681]
        Kernel driver in use: nouveau

See the 3rd line: "Kernel driver in use: nouveau".

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