Earl,
This is not possible under Debian, you have to learn another way (make-kpkg).
No, only if you want it packaged for the distribution. You can still lob random files (eg a kernel) in random locations (eg /boot) if you want, but why make life hard for yourself?
Standards (especially de-facto) are a good thing. There should always be a choice between the Standard and any extensions which an individual distro may have added.
The only major distribution shipping a less tailored kernel than debian, when last I looked, was Slackware. With debian, you can download a Linus kernel and compile it into a package without editing the kernel files -- how cool is that?
As I say - not knocking make-kpkg, its actually very good. But is it not possible to alter the install files to update the apt database when installing a kernel using make ?
Only if you buggered about with the standard kernel Makefile. Debian doesn't want to do that, so you have make-kpkg.
So, which do you want? Proper kernel which you can package, or buggered kernel which you can make "properly"?
PS. written word does not convey tongue firmly planted in cheek, please bare this in mind prior to slamming me. Life's too short. :oP
Indeed ;-)