In Debian it's best to do the whole thing in a fakeroot and built deb packages for the image and headers:
Make a build directory
Code:
$ mkdir ~/build && cd ~/build
Get your kernel source (example is 3.14.2) and extract
Code:
$ wget https://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v3.x/linux-3.14.2.tar.xz
Code:
$ tar Jxvf linux-3.14.2.tar.xz && cd linux-3.14.2
Get the config from the running kernel
Code:
$ cp /boot/config-`uname -r` .config
(it's usually safe to hold down enter here and accept the defaults - if there is a huge jump in versions, the kernel source of the newest kernel from unstable will have a newer debianised config).
Next run the config tool of choice and make changes as required
or
etc
Clean the source directory
Code:
$ make-kpkg --rootcmd fakeroot clean
Build the kernel, initrd and headers
Code:
$ make-kpkg --rootcmd fakeroot --initrd kernel_image kernel_headers
Install the resulting deb packages (no need for manual installation/copying of bzImage or modules)
Configure the bootloader and reboot.