Load a Kernel module multiple times in 14.04 LTS?

Question

the original modprobe command had a switch -o to rename a module when loading it into the kernel. This was useful for modules that needed to be loaded multiple times.

e.g.

modprobe bonding -o bond0 mode=active-backup miimon=100 primary=eth2 max_bonds=2
modprobe bonding -o bond1 mode=active-backup miimon=100 primary=eth3 max_bonds=2

in Ubuntu 14.04 modprobe seems to be replaced by kmod, which doesn't support the -o switch.

Is there a new way to load a module multiple times?

Answer 1

There is a second (easier IMO) way. The bonding module supports multiple bonds, but defaults to one. Edit or create /etc/modprobe.d/bonding.conf and add:

options bonding max_bonds=2

for 2 bonds (or adjust accordingly). Then, when the module is loaded, two bonds will be created. You can use /etc/network/interfaces to configure both bonds and slave interfaces.

See also: http://catdamnit.net/?p=89

Answer 2

There is an alternative way for getting multiple bonding interfaces on Ubuntu 14.04.

You need to write an upstart script to manually load the bonding module and configure all the bonding interfaces via sysfs.

Detailed information is posted on my blog.