[ILUG] modprobe: can't locate module char-major-6

[Paul Kelly]

Donncha O Caoimh wrote:
> 
> Here's an easy one for you. I remember reading about how to stop the
> above message appearing in syslog in the RedHat Users Faq but I can't
> find the faq anywhere. (The RH site was always difficult to navigate
> IMO..) Does anyone remember how to stop the above message? I know it's
> to do with /etc/conf.modules, I just can't remember how...

It's looking for a module to handle the character device in /dev with
the device major number of 6. That happens to be the printer driver -
'ls -l /dev/lp0' and you'll see the number 6 in there.

There are three ways around this problem.

First, you can hide the problem. If you stick 'alias char-major-6 off'
in /etc/conf.modules, that will tell kerneld not to bother looking for
that module.

Second, you can eliminate the program that's trying to access the
printer device. It's probably lpd. Once that's stopped, the kernel will
no longer have to go looking for the module and you won't get the
message.

Third, you can fix it properly and compile parallel port printer support
either into the kernel image or as a module.

Paul.