Building custom kernel based off stock debian kernel

[Nick Jennings <nick@namodn.com>]

Hello.

 I'd like to make a slight customization to the debian kernel. I do not
 understand the debian packing scheme for getting the complete source
 to the DEBIAN linux kernel (i.e. all patches applied and the .config
 that is used for the debian kernel-images).

 I grabbed the kernel-source:

gateway:/usr/src/# apt-get install kernel-source-2.4.17

 After examining the source tree from this, I have found that it does
 not have a .config at all, and I do not this any of the debian patches
 have been applied. This looks like kernel.org source.

 So I tried:

gateway:/usr/src/deb-src# apt-get source kernel-image-2.4.17

 This created the following:

gateway:/usr/src/deb-src# ls
kernel-source-2.4.17-2.4.17            kernel-source-2.4.17_2.4.17-1.dsc
kernel-source-2.4.17_2.4.17-1.diff.gz  kernel-source-2.4.17_2.4.17.orig.tar.gz
gateway:/usr/src/deb-src# 

 The directory 'kernel-source-2.4.17-2.4.17' is quite a strange name? I
 am confused by this behaviour and am not sure how I can use this source
 package to build a custom debian kernel. Why is it called 2.4.17-2.4.17?
 
 Is the 'source kernel-image-2.4.17' what I am supposed to be building
 from? If so, why is there no '.config' in there? Where do I get the
 '.config' from?


 Now assuming I get answers to these questions, can someone please verify
 the the following would be how I build this source into a kernel package?

<apply customization>
patch kernel && 'make menuconfig' to customize kernel configuration.

<build kernel package>
gateway:/usr/src/linux# make-kpkg --revision=gateway.1 --initrd buildpackage

-- 
  Nick Jennings