Modifying the smsc-at driver

I am currently attempting to add username and password functionality to the
smsc-at driver.  I have Kannel installed via apt-get on Ubuntu 7.10.  I have
a couple of questions.  First of all, is this the correct mailing list for
questions for about small changes to the kannel code?
Is there a way to simply patch the kannel driver and maintain kannel
installed as it is or is it better/needed to uninstall kannel before I try
to compile and run my moded code?  I like the way Kannel is functioning now,
at least in the way the daemon and log rolling works.  I just would like to
have kannel compiled the same way as it is in the apt-get access.  I also
would appreciate any help I could get to point me in the right direction as
to which files need to be modified.

Thanks, very much

-Tony