7.2 The modularized 2.4 kernel

The new Debian 2.4 kernels provided by kernel-image-2.4.NN are very modularized. You have to make sure those modules are activated to make the kernel function as you intend.

Although I have many examples for /etc/modules in the following section as a quick fix, I hear that the correct way to fix these module-related issues is to provide an alias for the device in a file in /etc/modutils/ since there are enough aliases available with current kernels. Some modules may be auto activated by hardware detection programs such as discover. See also Hardware detection for X, Section 9.4.2.

See Special provisions for dealing with modules, Section 2.7.5 and Documentation/*.txt in the Linux source for the precise information.