I tried to rename the ebuild but it does not work.
2.6.17-rc2-mm1 is also out and in the portage tree. But even the mm-sources-2.6.17_rc2-mm1 ebuild from the portage tree does not work. During src_unpack the kernel-2.eclass wants to build include/linux/version.h This will trigger Kconfig to ask every question of kernel config, because the .config generated by the eclass is empty. ( see unpack_2_6() from eclass/kernel-2.eclass ) 'make allyesconfig' followed by 'make include/linux/version.h' works without user interaction. (vanilla 2.6.17_rc2 still works with an empty .config)
I had made a bug report some time ago. See bug #131618
newer versions are in portage now