# How do I know if a module is not built-in to the kernel?



## mrjayviper (Aug 15, 2015)

I probably know the answer to this but I'm I never thought of it before. So I'd rather ask. Apologies in advance but thank you.

So I'm guessing if xxx.ko is existing, it means the kernel config used doesn't have 
	
	



```
device xxx
```
inside it?


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## kpa (Aug 15, 2015)

You can look at the output of `kldstat -v` if a certain driver is statically linked to the current kernel. The existence of xxx.ko in /boot/kernel is no indication of whether the module is a load-only or included in the kernel. All modules get built anyway during `make buildkernel` and modules mentioned in the kernel config with the device keyword are then statically linked to the kernel.


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