The first step is to install the appropriate packages:
bin86 kernel-package kernel-source-2.4.16 debconf-utils alsa-source-0.5 (if you need ALSA's extra sound support) pcmcia-sourceFor the particular release of Debian being used the version numbers will be different. The kernel-package provides tools to generate, from the compiled kernel image, a genuine Debian package that you simply install as a standard type package. The resulting package can be installed (and uninstalled) cleanly and correctly with dpkg and wajig.
Note that you do not need the kernel-headers package as all the headers required are in the kernel-source package. The headers were split out for other reasons (compiling other packages without installing all of the kernel sources).
Installing the kernel-source package simply places the archived kernel source file (kernel-source-2.4.16.tar.bz2) into /usr/src. Similarly for any kernel modules you wish to also install (like alsa). Extract the actual source code into /usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.16:
# cd /usr/src # tar jxvf kernel-source-2.4.16.tar.bz2 # tar zxvf alsa-driver-0.5.tar.gz # tar zxvf pcmcia-cs.tar.gz
You can also obtain a more recent (or even just any different) version of the kernel from the net yourself and still use the Debian kernel-package utilities.