Index: grass/scripts/g.extension/g.extension
===================================================================
--- grass.orig/scripts/g.extension/g.extension	2012-02-24 18:06:25.980494464 +1300
+++ grass/scripts/g.extension/g.extension	2012-02-24 18:08:03.756783834 +1300
@@ -75,6 +75,14 @@
   exec g.parser "$0" "$@"
 fi
 
+
+# check if we have the grass include and Make files
+dpkg-query -l grass-dev | grep '^ii' > /dev/null 2> /dev/null
+if [ $? -ne 0 ] ; then
+   g.message -w "This module requires the \"grass-dev\" package"
+fi
+
+
 # definitions
 
 SVNURL_ADDONS="$GIS_OPT_SVNURL"
