diff --git a/debian/README.build b/debian/README.build
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index 000000000..5713a869f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/README.build
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+Building kernels from SVN (for official images):
+
+1) Start by downloading a kernel tarball from kernel.org (ie,
+linux-2.6.12.tar.bz2).
+2) Run trunk/scripts/prune-non-free <tarball>.  This will produce two
+additional tarballs; linux-kernel-<version>.orig.tar.gz and
+linux-kernel-nonfree-<version>.orig.tar.gz.  Ignore the nonfree tarball
+for now.
+3) Unpack linux-kernel-<version>.orig.tar.gz, cd into the new directory,
+and do a 'svn export' to get the debian/ subdirectory.