Then you have all necessary tools to be able to change the code the way you want. Each package compilation script is in lfs directory.
It should be enough to :
This is for 1.4:
./make.sh prefetch md5sum /tmp/your-package-name
And this is for 2.0:
./make.sh prefetch md5sum cache/tmp/your-package-name
If you add a package, the building of this package needs to be added in make.sh, probably at the end of make.sh buildstage3 if it is a file used after installation. There are enough existing examples in the lfs directory to be a source of inspiration. For files you want to include in installed files (i.e. included in the ISO you are building), add the result of your package in log (check log/<package file=""> to the appropriate src/ROOTFILE.xxx In v2, each package had his own rootfile in config/rootfiles. If you remove one package, you could only suppress the corresponding rootfile.
./make.sh shell allow to run make menuconfig inside the chroot once the distribution is compiled. just type :
./make.sh shell
cd /usr/src/linux
For a kernel upgrade, simply use make oldconfig For kernel settings changes, it is more convenient to use make menuconfig
After the use of make menuconfig, make oldconfig will remove comments added by make menuconfig to ease diff checking.
In case of x86, you would have to report the change on the other .config (std or smp config). Then copy the changed .config file on config/kernel/kernel-config.xxx.
Preferably retrieve IPCop sources from cvs (1.4) or svn (2.0). This way, you can keep your changes uncommited on your cvs/svn tree and your modified sources could be updated with a simple cvs update -Pd (1.4) or svn update (2.0).
If your change conflicts in one place with official changes, you would have to repair that part only and not need to report each of your changes on every release.
Changing the way a package is compiled is the easy part of your programmer's life. Maintaining a change in the long term may be more challenging. You are always welcome to report your changes, so they could be included in a next release or version.
Prefered way to report those enhancement is to post a RFE on sourceforge with a diff -u or cvs diff -u (1.4) or svn diff (2.0) of your modifications. Another possibility is to send a message to the ipcop-devel mailing list.