modprobed

Modprobed is a hypothetical daemon for Linux-like systems that manages kernel module probing and loading on demand. It is envisioned to automatically identify when a missing kernel module is required and to load it into the running kernel in response to hardware events,driver requests, or system services.

In typical designs, modprobed would coordinate with the kernel’s module loader and with device managers such as udev. It would consult existing module databases, such as modules.dep and modules.alias, to resolve dependencies and locate the appropriate module file, then invoke the kernel to insert the module using standard interfaces. It would also provide mechanisms to unload modules when they are no longer needed and to preload commonly used drivers for faster startup.

Operation would be event-driven, listening for netlink, udev, or D-Bus events indicating a device or subsystem requires a module. It would enforce security and policy, requiring appropriate privileges and respecting module signing and blacklists. It could be configured to operate at boot, on demand, or as a persistent background service and to log its actions to the system log.

Configuration options might include a whitelist or blacklist of modules, a timeout for load attempts, and paths to module databases. Some proposed implementations would integrate modprobed with existing init systems or systemd units to reconcile startup loading with on-demand behavior.

Modprobed is not part of the standard Linux distributions in current documentation; in practice, dynamic module loading is achieved through a combination of udev, modprobe, and systemd integration rather than a single daemon. The concept, however, illustrates the goal of on-demand kernel module provisioning.