[SLUG] How to discover which modules unnecessary

[Leslie Katz <lesliek@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

I'm trying to make an ancient laptop run with a mini-distribution, DSL.

As the laptop has only 64MB of RAM, I'm trying to make sure DSL doesn't 
include any unnecessary services or modules when it boots up.

For instance, the laptop has two PCMCIA slots, so on bootup, DSL starts 
cardmgr. However, I have no cards installed, so I configured a file 
which runs on bootup shortly after cardmgr is started immediately to 
stop cardmgr.

Having done what I think I can with services, I've now turned to 
modules. For instance, on bootup, DSL loads the ieee1394 module. 
However, the laptop has no Firewire port, so I configured the same file 
immediately to unload the module.

However, I'm a bit worried about trying to do the same thing with other 
modules. Since the laptop has no USB ports, I thought I could get rid of 
the usbcore and hid modules in the same way I got rid of the ieee1394 
module, but trying that hung the laptop.

Can anyone point me to some source of information which would help me 
decide which, if any, other modules I could safely dispense with? I've 
tried via googling, but had no success.