@b4n thanks for the help. I simply don't understand Debian rules files enough switch to using the autogen script. That's where PKGBUILDs are so much better, with it there's no special macros or commands (like `dh_autoreconf` just the standard set of commands one has access to at the command-line). I was hoping that this process would be as simple as copying existing Debian source files and modifying them slightly (like change config options like you mentioned in your last comment).