After I followed the steps to patch, I didn't see any difference in my version 3.17.3.

What does edit mean? How to do it?
3. Read and
edit all the *.patch files in the 3.17.3_source/ subdirectory in order to:
choose which patches to enable (patch_enable=`yes`) or disable (patch_enable=`no`); and to change some of the replacement values to suit your device and preferences.
