Compiling the linux kernel 2.6.24 in Ubuntu for the intel iwl4965 driver

I have decided to try to compile my laptop's kernel to the latest 2.6.24 from kernel.org.
I followed the directions from Dave Yates at the lottalinuxlinks podcast.
http://lottalinuxlinks.com/blog
I tried several times and did not have much luck. The first time I had my wireless card working (intel 4965) but my sound card was not working. I did not test this for very long as I really like to have sound on my machine. I decided to try again. The next time I tried to compile I had my sound problem fixed but my wireless had stopped working. So, back to the drawing board. I tried again and again without success. Searched google and the Ubuntu forums and I was able to find one post stating that to get the iwl4965 module to load at boot you would need to copy the files from /lib/firmware/ to /lib/firmware/
so in the terminal I typed

sudo cp -r /lib/firmware/2.6.22-14-generic/ /lib/firmware/2.6.24.2

I also downloaded the latest iwl4965 microcode from the site http://intellinuxwireless.org/
placed the file iwlwifi-4965-1.ucode into the folder /lib/firmware/2.6.24.2 and then continued to compile the kernel. After about an hour and a half the kernel had compiled and the deb packages were ready to install. I installed the deb packages and rebooted the machine and the wireless and sound worked great. The wireless card is now stable (24 hours now and no disconnect) and my sound works as well as compiz 3d effects and all of the wobbly goodness.
The only thing that is not working is my virtual machines - virtualbox & vmware-server.
This isn't really a big deal because I can always reboot my machine and use the old kernel.
The other thing that stopped working is my built in webcam. Not a big deal either. I can live without it.

My machine seems to be a bit more snappy now that the kernel is optimuzed for my intel processor. Graphics seem a little crisper and the whole system just seems to be better and more stable than it was before.
I guess I could have waited until the next release of Ubuntu ( Hardy Heron ), but I just didn't want to wait.
Maybe I will try fixing the other things that broke this weekend.
I will post my results if they are interesting enough.