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I am trying to initiate a driver module by

insmod path/to/module.ko

and I am getting following error

> init_module 'path/to/module.ko' failed <File exists>

I am trying to understand if it means that the module is already up and running or is it completely failing to initialize at all.

I am looking for the meaning for <File exists>, does it mean it is already initialized?

Steve H
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2 Answers2

8

It means that the module is already loaded. Check the output of lsmod.

marcantonio
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0

I believe the problem here is that the kernel is running from a read only partition booted by the android rom. I too had similar problems when attempting to insert a wifi module. i.e. if your output is similar to: 

root@stackoverflow:~# insmod rkwifi.ko
Error: could not insert module rkwifi.ko: File exists
root@stackoverflow:~# lsmod | grep rkwifi
root@stackoverflow:~# lsmod
Module                  Size  Used by
fbcon                  34211  66
font                    7042  1 fbcon
bitblit                 3708  1 fbcon
softcursor               880  1 bitblit
wlan                  458451  0
rk30xxnand_ko         314328  0
root@stackoverflow:~#

My Setup is an android tv box running debian with 3.0.36+ kernel In my case it is nessessary to download and modify the kernel from source. You can then package the kernel back up and use an appropriate flashing tool for your device to flash only the kernel partition back to the device leaving the filesystem unmodified.

neutrino
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    This should be a comment instead of an answer. You seem not sure enough and almost seem to ask a question yourself. A comment would suite nicely. – Joop Apr 21 '15 at 00:19
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    Given no hardware information provided by the user and the question being driver related, my earlier answer was vague. I have since updated to be more specific.. enjoy :) – neutrino Apr 21 '15 at 00:52