make-kpkg

Debian tool for building Linux kernel and turning the result into an installable .deb package. It's highly cool, and even runs LILO for you, and maintains same symlinks to kernel in root directory so bootloaders like GRUB are happy. The packages also make sure you don't screw your system too badly.

The tool can be found in package kernel-package.

Here's a quickstart (I never remember how to do this, so here it is from the README):

• cd /usr/src/linux-xxxxxxx
• make menuconfig [or "config" or "xconfig"]
• make modules_config [if you have module package sources under /usr/src/modules!]
• make-kpkg clean
• make-kpkg --revision=custom.1.0 kernel_image
• make-kpkg modules_image [if you have module package sources under /usr/src/modules!]
• dpkg -i ../kernel-image-xxxxxxxxx.deb
• dpkg -i ../(module packages, if any).deb (...)
• (Make sure the kernel is where the bootloader can reasonably find it - if you're using LILO, make sure it worked)
• shutdown -r now 'TIMBEEEER!'