m-a command not found

In this troubleshooting guide we learn how to fix m-a command not found error message

Introduction

When you run more command in linux terminal / console, you get the following error message

m-a: command not found

or when using sudo you get the following error message

sudo: m-a: command not found

In Ubuntu m-a is provided by module-assistant package.

module-assistant is:

The module-assistant tool (also known as m-a) helps users and maintainers with managing external Linux kernel modules packaged for Debian. It can do:

automated preparation of build environment for module compilation (e.g. automatic detection and installation of required kernel source/headers);
automated module source downloads;
configuration and tracking of external and locally built modules packages;
semi-automated multiple builds for multiple kernel versions;

It also contains some infrastructure to be used by the build-scripts in the accompanying modules-source packages in Debian.

To fix this problem, we can install more using the command below.

sudo apt-get -y install module-assistant

This command might take some time to finish depending on your machine internet connection.

You can also use apt command to install module-assistant.

sudo apt -y install module-assistant

Or if you have aptitude installed you can use the following command.

sudo aptitude install module-assistant

In this tutorial we learn how to fix m-a command not found error in Ubuntu / Debian / Kali Linux or Raspbian distribution.