A sysadmin needs the r8169 network driver to load at every boot with a non-default parameter baked in, without editing the initramfs by hand. What is the correct approach?
- A. Run insmod r8169.ko with the option flag manually via a cron job at every boot
- B. Add an "options r8169 <parameter>=<value>" line to a file under /etc/modprobe.d/ so modprobe applies it whenever the module loads Correct
- C. Edit /proc/modules directly to hardcode the parameter
- D. Pass the option only as a kernel command-line parameter in grub.cfg
Why B is correct
modprobe reads configuration snippets in /etc/modprobe.d/*.conf, and an "options <module> <param>=<value>" line is applied automatically every time that module is loaded by modprobe — including automatic loads triggered by udev at boot — making it the standard persistent mechanism for this.
Why the others are incorrect
insmod never reads modprobe.d configuration, and a cron job to re-run it is fragile and non-standard. /proc/modules is a kernel-generated, read-only view that cannot be edited to configure anything. Kernel command-line parameters configure built-in kernel behavior, not options for a loadable module that may load later via udev.