System Commands

Kernel Commands

There are a number of commands that can be used to show the status of Loadable Kernel Modules (LKM) and control their inclusion in the kernel. Some of the more useful commands are listed below:

• lsusb: program to list all USB devices
• lsmod: program to show the status of modules in the Linux Kernel
• insmod: program to insert a module into the Linux Kernel
• modprobe: program to add and remove modules from the Linux Kernel

If the use of the lsmod commands shows that the module is not loaded then the command modprobe can be used to load the module.

System Messages

System status messages usefully assist general investigations and troubleshooting. Some of the commands available to give access to system messages are shown below:

• dmesg: command to display console startup messages