Building own kernel on ubuntu

A few pointers based on what you've said:

• Use make-kpkg! You really don't want to mess around with make install for a kernel. Kernels are fairly huge things you want them in packages where you can quickly go "get rid of this please!" with a quick "apt-get remove".

• The "old fashioned way" as described in the Kernel/Compile document is the single best way I know how to compile kernels on Ubuntu with random (non-Ubuntu-specific) sources like Kernel.org.

• Skip the make localmodconfig step. It can be useful but more times than not, it just seems to break things (for me).

• I wouldn't suggest you configure the entire kernel by yourself. Pull in the latest copy of the Ubuntu configuration and base off that. That will get you a good sane default that you can prune down. When you build the next version just pull the config forward and do a make oldconfig to see if there are any new options (common when jumping between major versions).

• If you're building 2.6.38 on Maverick, I suggest you pull back Natty's config. You'll need to download the package from packages.ubuntu.com and extract the config file from its boot folder. I've already asked if there's an easier way of doing this, but there doesn't appear to be.

In short: Just follow the "old fashioned way" to the letter. Once you've built yourself a few packages and you know what you're doing, play around with the formula.