compileing a debian kernel image questions

[sean]

1.  If I want to compile a debian kernel-image deb using kpkg,  which of the instructions from the speakup installation readme do I have to follow and which ones will dpkg handle for me.  
2. What modules do I have to enable for the speakup synths to be available and for the best functioning of speakup?
3. Which modules should I not enable support for?
4. If I want to boot speakup with a specific synth,  can I compile this synth as a module and still use a normal grub kernel-command option?  I.E. if I compile support for the bns as a module will the kernel command-line option speakup_synth=bns still work in the grub configuration file menu.lst?
Because this kernel-image will go on a very slow, Compaq Pentium-90 with 40MB ram,  Are there options I should enable/disable related to speakup?

Finally,  Which set of documentation should I read for kernel modules?
The path I'd like to take is, use the cvs checkout script to get speakup patches, put these patches into the directory containing the source from the kernel-source-2.4.27 deb virtual package and use make-kpkg to create the kernel image.
One last question, how much disk space should I free up?
Sean