I've built a kernel with loadable module support for various reasons, one of them the possibility to compile modules and load them without rebooting. This is supposed to be useful when I need a module that I had not enabled in the kernel config.Now, with drivers like nouveau, it's as easy as going to the source directory, and running make M=drivers/gpu/drm/nouveau. How can I build an updated iptables module without compiling a whole kernel and rebooting? Is it even possible?
How do I build the iptables kernel module for a loaded kernel?
kernel;iptables;kernel modules
Just go to your kernel source directory, make the changes you want, and make, then make modules_install.That's all it takes.If you want to build only one specific module, use:make M=path/to/module/directoryFor instance (from the kernel toplevel directory):make M=fs/ext4make M=fs/ext4 modules_installTo activate the changed modules, you must unload then re-insert them. If the module was not previously loaded, nothing special needs to be done.Note that you cannot change something from built-in to module this way (that requires a reboot), and some modules may have dependencies that require changes in built-in configuration - you'll need to reboot for that too.