The Linode kernels are monolithic, since they can't rely on any particular modules being present within your system. Unless there's another way to modify these parameters at runtime, you might end up having to run a non-Linode kernel to make this happen.

I'm having this same problem on CentOS 5.6 (kernel version of 2.6.39.1-linode34), and I have no idea how to solve it - and I really don't want to resort to a non-Linode kernel unless I absolutely have to.

I do have an /etc/modprobe.conf file, but adding these options to it doesn't change anything. Doing a 'cat /sys/module/xtrecent/parameters/iplist_tot' still shows the old value.

A poster in this thread suggested modifying these parameters at runtime - how could I do this? Running 'modprobe iptrecent' or 'modprobe xtrecent' gives errors.

Installing modules on a Linode kernel is apparently possible, but sufficiently difficult to be impractical. So you can't use modprobe to install them.

I put this at the end of my /etc/rc.d/rc.sysinit file:

# change xt_recent module parameters for iptables
chmod 644 /sys/module/xt_recent/parameters/*
echo 300 > /sys/module/xt_recent/parameters/ip_list_tot
echo 60 > /sys/module/xt_recent/parameters/ip_pkt_list_tot

Seems to work so far. I'll post back if I have any problems with it.