btw the entire "copy and make an initrd" step can be shortened to
make install
that copies all needed files, makes an initrd and also adds the new kernel to grub (or lilo if that's your preferred poison)
Right. Sorry, in the spirit of posting answers:
01) download http://mirrors.kernel.org/fedora/core/6/source/SRPMS/kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc... 02) rpm -ivh kernel-2.6.18-1.2798.fc6.src.rpm 03) cd /usr/src/redhat/SOURCES; cp linux-2.6-r8129-update.patch . 04) cd /usr/src/redhat/SPECS 05) cp kernel-spec.patch . ; patch -p0 < kernel-spec.patch 06) rpmbuild -ba kernel-2.6.spec 07) cd /usr/src/redhat/BUILD/kernel-2.6.18/linux-2.6.18.i386/ 08) make 09) make modules_install 10) make install 11) reboot
-benjamin