Just download the .diff.gz from kernel-source instead and run the included prune-non-free script. kernel-patch-debian is a useless package.
The point of kernel-patch-debian, as far as building our kernels go, is:
Suppose a kernel-image source package build-depends on kernel-tree-2.4.27-4. This is provided by kernel-tree-2.4.27, which in turn depends on kernel-source-2.4.27 and kernel-patch-debian-2.4.27, but it is version 2.4.27-5 in unstable. And let's say -5 introduced some fix that prevents kernels meant to build against -4 from building against it.
Herbert's kernel-image build system will call /usr/src/kernel-patches/all/$VERSION/apply/debian 2.4.27-4 based on some wacky sed magic applied to the kernel-tree-2.4.27-4 build-dependency, and the extracted kernel tree will appear just as it does in a kernel-source-2.4.27 tarball from 2.4.27-4.
(I hope that made sense..)
Yes, it's useless in the eyes of an end user but prevents spurious build failures due to inconsistencies between kernel-source package versions. *shrug*
-- Joshua Kwan
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