Debian Module-Assistant

Module Easy

Module Assistant is a powerful Debian package for the download and installation of kernal modules. It makes using modules less painful.

Here's a quick run through for Module Assistant.

The Module Assistant package is normally abbreviated to m-a.

First check 'contrib non-free' have been added to /etc/apt/sources.list

cat /etc/apt/sources.list

If not, add them. Your sources list needs to look like this:

# Debian Main Repository
deb http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free
deb-src http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/ wheezy main contrib non-free

I'm running Wheezy, which is the current testing release. You may be running a different release. Just add 'contrib non-free' to the end of your repository URLs.

Update our sources list, then install Module Assistant.

# aptitude update

# aptitude install module-assistant

Now use Module Assistant to download headers for the kernel

# m-a prepare

Update list of kernel modules

# m-a update

Lets see what we got

# m-a list

We want the nvidia module, so lets build it

# m-a a-i nvidia-kernel-source

a-i is short for auto-install

Check the module is installed

# modprobe nvidia

Check it was loaded

# lsmod | grep nvidia

To auto-load the module at boot, add 'nvidia' entry in /etc/modules

Module Assistant has an interactive mode you can use. To start interactive mode, do:

m-a

Interactive mode is self explanatory.

Your done!