No way to express module preferences

Are there other Linux distributions that are able to do this? Or are you talking about changing Linux fundamentally?

For built-in drivers, these "preferences" are provided by link ordering. module-init-tools v3.7-pre1 now applies this same order to modules.

I think this won't be quite as powerful as for built-in drivers, but it is definitely supposed to solve your problem.

As before, if users need to override the defaults, they will have to edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.

Oops, I guess this hasn't been committed to _Ubuntu_, so I shouldn't have marked this "Fix committed".

Actually, it is in the package bzr repo; i just haven't uploaded it yet

This bug was fixed in the package module-init-tools - 3.7~pre7-1

---------------
module-init-tools (3.7~pre7-1) jaunty; urgency=low

  * Repackage afresh for Ubuntu based off an upstream GIT import into bzr,
    rather than the Debian package.
  * New upstream pre-release:
    - many bug fixes. LP: #99547, #292887, #303613, #284001.
    - much profiling and optimisation work.
    - depmod generates and modprobe uses binary indexes for module lists,
      giving a significant performance benefit.
    - legacy support for pre-2.6 kernels dropped.
    - module ordering support. LP: #118040, #317724.
    - updated documentation. LP: #203828, #259791.

  * /etc/modprobe.d/aliases: Dropped this file, the kernel has been able to
    export the {char,block}-major-* aliases for a while and adding them to the
    appropriate modules is a one line patch. All aliases present here have
    been added to the Ubuntu kernel if not already present. LP: #332357.
  * /etc/modprobe.d/isapnp: Dropped this file, the modalias strings in it were
    not current with the strings produced by pnpacpi in the kernel (pnpbios
    does not produce any modalias strings), and this kind of thing is better
    off done with kernel patches.
  * /etc/modprobe.d/options: Dropped this file, changes to default kernel
    options should be changed in the kernel so that they also take effect if
    the module is built-in; and also to make sure they're kept in sync with
    any changes to option names or defaults (or even module names) in the
    kernel.
  * /etc/modprobe.d/arch/*, /etc/modprobe.d/arch-aliases: Dropped the arch
    directory and the symlink into it, these aliases and/or options are
    handled by kernel patches now.

  * /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-amd76-edac: Merged with the ordinary blacklist
    file, since it only contains one line.
  * /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist{,-*}: Files renamed to end in ".conf" as
    required by new upstream version.a

  * /sbin/update-modules: This deprecated command has been removed.
  * Completely non-parallel-installable with modutils. LP: #208874.

  * All patches either merged upstream or dropped:
    - always_apply_blacklist: merged
    - blacklist-warn.diff: dropped. LP: #66423.
    - fix_8bit: merged
    - fix_sgml: merged
    - ignore_arch_directory: dropped
    - insmod-segv: merged
    - last_good_boot: dropped
    - modprobe_conf_and_directory: dropped
    - runparts_like_names: merged
    - silence_modprobe: dropped
    - use_blacklist_doc: merged

  * Note that from this version of module-init-tools, all configuration files
    in /etc/modprobe.d should end with ".conf", support for other names is
    retained with a warning but will be dropped.
  * Note that the Ubuntu -Q option to modprobe has been dropped, to silence
    modprobe use -q.

 -- Scott James Remnant <email address hidden> Mon, 09 Mar 2009 17:13:55 +0000