What is the package 'kernel-tree-2.6.6' for?

["Roland Wegmann" <rowe_gnu@gmx.net>]

Hi all,

I'm going to compile a 2.6.6 Kernel for my iBook2.2. I read somewhere
that this Kernel version doesn't need the extra xfree package from Michel
Dänzer (thank's a lot for all the work you have done, Michel).

But now I would like what the meta packages 'kernel-tree-x.y.z' exactly
do. I read the description one can find on <http://packages.debian.org/
testing/devel/kernel-tree-2.6.6>, see below.

---

This meta package is used as a ???build-time dependency of prepackaged???
Debian kernel-image packages. Its dependencies are structured so that a
complete kernel tree with Debian patches applied will be available after
this package is installed.

For those intending to use this package as a build-time dependency, ??
?this package provides a list of virtual packages??? that guarantees the
availability of a particular Debian revision of the kernel tree. The
kernel-image-2.6.6-i386 package is an example of this.

---

What does this really mean? Does the package kernel-tree-x.y.z simply
apt-get the kernel-patches and the kernel-source like 'apt-get install
kernel-patches kernel-source'? Or is there additional benefit?


BTW: Do I have to patch the kernel-patches by hand or has 'debian'
already done this for me, so that a can start with 'make menuconfig'?


Thanks in advance for helping me

Roland Wegmann
rowe_gnu@gmx.net