Compiling same kernel

[Ken Januski <kenjanuski@mindspring.com>]

Hi,

6 months ago I bought the binaries for debian linux 2.2.17. It works
fine but I want to compile the kernel to add support for sound which
doesn't seem to be there. The binaries didn't come with the source so
I've downloaded that.

My question now is: what is the safest method to compile the kernel from
source code? Specifically I wonder if I have to do it differently in
debian than in linux in general.

I'm sure this is a very basic question so thanks for your patience.

ken