OH NOOO my last beer
I compiled the kernel in a debian squeeze nfsroot running from the plop box on a vm using the standard plop kernel.
I modified the original plop kconfig to my taste, used debian's makekpkg and fakeroot to generate a deb file.
why so complicate?
here is a simple but detailed step by step tutorial, when your kernel has a different number then there is no risk for your system. if the kernel number is the same, then you have to edit the kernel Makefile:
boot your linux (in your case debian)
be sure that the development stuff is installed
extract the kernel in debian (i assume now 2.6.36)
copy the config.gz file from ploplinux /proc/config.gz to linux-2.6.36
cd linux-2.6.36
run "zcat config.gz >.config"
apply your patches
run "make menuconfig" and do your changes
run "make && sudo make modules_install"
grab the bzImage from "arch/x86/boot/bzImage" and copy it to "syslinux/kernel" of ploplinux
take the lib.sqfs of ploplinux and extract it "unsquashfs lib.sqfs"
change to "squashfs-root/modules"
remove the old kernel libs, they are useless when you use a new kernel
copy your new kernel modules from /lib/modules/2.6.36 to "squashfs/modules/"
remove lib.sqfs
create your new lib.sqfs "mksquashfs squashfs-root lib.sqfs"
set the permissions of lib.sqfs "chmod 644 lib.sqfs"
replace your new lib.sqfs with the old one of ploplinux
thats it

do this step by step and it will work. its nothing special. i wrote it from my mind, maybe there are typos.
regards
elmar