Here is another one that you may find useful to do after a default install of probably any Linux server, Disabling extra stuff from loading at startup. Ubuntu loads a ton of them and many I do not use at all. Since when do you need joystick or sound support on a server anyway? Anyways, here are some I disable and how I disable them.

IPV6 might cause you some trouble. If your router does not support IPV6 (or still only supports IPV4, which is 99% of all routers), you will have no use for IPV6. Unless you are using IPv6 it also adds an entire network stack to your running server. A stack that needs to be secured for every service. So ipv6 will be the first blacklisting it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.

We may as well disable all those annoying sound modules from loading. So lets find out what sound modules should be blacklisted. I have on-board sound and I believe that the modules gets auto detected via a series of detection scripts in /etc/modprobe.d/alsa-base so I have to be a bit more specific in the blacklist. Find out how the sound modules are getting loaded. As you can see from the command below the via82xx on board sound module is getting loaded. If in doubt just blacklist ’em all.

12:59:13 shadowbox /etc/modprobe.d: lsmod | grep snd
snd_via82xx 29464 0
snd_ac97_codec 100260 1 snd_via82xx
ac97_bus 3200 1 snd_ac97_codec
snd_pcm 80388 2 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 24324 1 snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 11528 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 9600 1 snd_via82xx
snd_rawmidi 25728 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 9228 1 snd_rawmidi
snd 54532 7 snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_timer,
snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
gameport 16776 2 snd_via82xx,analog
soundcore 8800 1 snd

Ok with this knowledge we will begin blacklisting. I’ve added a few others related to sound and joystick devices just to be all inclusive

sudo nano /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist

add the following at the bottom

Then reboot like so:
sudo reboot now

I’m sure I could shave off a few other modules like the printer port (parport_pc) and the floppy (floppy) but this generally suites my needs and is a good start.