SPI not working on a Pi Model B

Question

I have an issue and I think it is the SPI module not starting up. if i run this:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ gpio load spi
gpio: Unable to load/unload modules as this Pi has the device tree enabled.
  You need to run the raspi-config program (as root) and select the
  modules (SPI or I2C) that you wish to load/unload there and reboot.

However, it is all enabled!

I have even added it to the /etc/modules file

# /etc/modules: kernel modules to load at boot time.
#
# This file contains the names of kernel modules that should be loaded
# at boot time, one per line. Lines beginning with "#" are ignored.

i2c-dev
i2c-bcm2708
spi-dev

Also, testing my spi works:

pi@raspberrypi:~ $ ls /dev/*spi*
/dev/spidev0.0  /dev/spidev0.1

However, when I run a program that I know works on a RPi Model B to operate some WS2801s nothing happens.

Answer 1

You should undo all that configuration and use device tree. Other methods have been deprecated for several years.

Edit /boot/config.txt and add the following entry, then reboot.

dtparam=spi=on