Compiling your own kernel (not recommended)

Use the kernel package instead! But if really you must, here is how:

 # apt-get install debhelper modutils kernel-package libncurses5-dev
 # apt-get install kernel-source-2.4.18   # use latest version
 # vi /etc/kernel-pkg.conf                # input my name and email
 $ cd /usr/src                            # build directory
 $ tar --bzip2 -xvf kernel-source-2.4.18.tar.bz2
 $ cd kernel-source-2.4.18                # if this is your kernel source
 # [OPTIONAL] if one wants to use modules from pcmcia-cs or no pcmcia
 $ cp /boot/config-2.4.18-386 .config     # get current config as  default
 $ make menuconfig                        # customize as one wishes
 $ make-kpkg clean                        # must run (per: man make-kpkg)
 $ fakeroot make-kpkg --append_to_version -486 --initrd \
        --revision=rev.01 kernel_image \
        modules_image # modules_image is for pcmcia-cs* etc.
 $ cd ..
 # dpkg -i kernel-image*.deb pcmcia-cs*.deb # install

Just verify the symlinks for /vmlinuz and /imitrd.img and the .old versions of them and remember to rerun lilo if you change them!