Building a custom kernel

[Martijn Grendelman <martijn@grendelman.net>]

Hi,

I am not sure if this is exactly the right place to ask, but I'm pretty 
sure someone here has the answer, so I'm taking a chance :-)

I am trying to build a custom kernel from the kernel sources I got from 
Backports. Now, I have figured out how to build a single kernel with the 
provided config templates, but I would really like to do a 'make 
menuconfig' or even just copy my own .config file to the right place, 
somewhere in the process.

What I did so far (following hints from the Debian Linux Kernel 
Handbook, among other places):

$ apt-get source linux-2.6
$ cd linux-2.6-2.6.16
$ fakeroot debian/rules debian/build debian/stamps
$ fakeroot make -f debian/rules.gen setup-i386-vserver-686

Now I can build the kernel image with

$ fakeroot make -f debian/rules.gen binary-arch-i386-vserver-686

However, in the last step, the final .config file is generated from the 
arch-dependent templates in debian/arch/i386, before it is copied to the 
freshly made build directory, debian/build/build-i386-vserver-686. I 
don't see any chance of interrupting those steps to sneak in my own config.

If there is a "right" way to accomplish what I want, what is it? If 
there isn't, how would a 1337 h4x0r go about it? :-) Any help would be 
much appreciated.

Best regards,

Martijn Grendelman