New kernel for etch

[Kerry Hoath]

Looking for some guidance preparing a new kernel for Debian etch with 
speakup in it.
I have downloaded 2.6.18 vanilla sources and investigated applying Debian 
specific patches to the tree but it all looks rather messy.
Does anyone have sample configs for 2.6.21.4 with or without speakup in them 
or an idea where to get something suitable for Debian?
There are so many questions these days it would take quite awhile to answer 
all the questions with make config and make menuconfig is a little clunky.

I have tried grabbing the .config from 2.6.18 and doing a make menuconfig 
however some of the variables have disappeared and this does not look like a 
clean solution.

I usually build the kernels with kernel-package and I am using an initramfs 
with customizations to support evms. Basically I need a recent kernel with 
speakup, the bd-claim patch and the bad-block relocation applied to it.
I can apply these patches and speakup to Vanilla sources; however defaults 
for the .config have me a little stumped and i'd rather not do the whole 
config myself without guidance unless I absolutely have to.

In the sarge days i'd grab 2.6.15, apply Marvell ethernet patches and 
speakup then build 2 or 3 different images with speakup and vmware features 
in them.

Looks like kernels have gotten a little trickier since then.

Regards, Kerry.