modprobe -r usbserial ??

[yonnieboy]

Can someone enlighten me as to what this instruction will really do? Will it kill all usb devices?

[daneel971]

try

modinfo usbserial

and see what purpose the module serves.
If you remove it, all the devices that need it will be inaccessible. Reload it, and they will re-appear.

[sej7278]

usbserial is the driver for usb-to-rs232 adaptors, i guess the "-r" bit reloads them - i.e. rmmod followed by modprobe

[yonnieboy]

I found an instruction sheet on installing a usb modem (AC595U). It's first instruction is: "sudo modprobe -r usbserial" I became concerned that that -r stood for remove and the computer I'm doing it to is using a usb mouse.

The next command is: "sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=[vendorID] product=[prodID] "

I'm also wondering if these above commands would be useful in getting other USB devices working?

[daneel971]

modprobe -r

removes the kernel module (it doesn't reload it: see "man modprobe"), but this doesn't affect input devices nor storage devices.
The second command you posted load again the module passing to it some different options, required by your modem.