Since I was starting on a brand new machine, I'm pretty sure I have the full list of required packages to make this whole patch go smoothly. Here's the list all in one go:
kernel source files
ACPI patch that exactly matches the kernel version
debian packages: make, bzip2, gcc, libc6-dev, tk8.3, libncurses5-dev, kernel-package
after you've patched the kernel add the debian packages: acpid, acpi (Debian testing and unstable only)