Ubuntu Compile and Install Linux Kernel

1. Get Linux kernel source code from www.kernel.org

I choose linux-4.14.150.tar.gz to download the tarball

2. decompress the tarball

 tar -xvf linux-4.14.150.tar.xz

3. Install build dependency tools

sudo apt-get install build-essential libncurses-dev bison flex libssl-dev libelf-dev

4. Linux kernel default configuration
   Linux kernel default configuration is named as
   xxx_defconfig under arch/ folder,

cd  linux-4.14.150/arch
find -name *defconfig | grep x86 -i

you will see following search results

./x86/configs/x86_64_defconfig
./x86/configs/i386_defconfig
./um/configs/x86_64_defconfig

the x86_64_defconfig only contains the basic features, if to support multiple device drivers, it is better to use the current kernel configuration on ubuntu system

5. Customize kernel configuration

cd  linux-4.14.150
cp /boot/config-4.8.0+ .config
make menuconfig

using exist ubuntu 4.8.0 config, then make menuconfig to customize specific kernel configuration you want

6. Compile Linux Kernel

cd  linux-4.14.150
make

or to speed up compiling use “make -j4”, here i use “make” to easy track the first scene if any bug happens during compiling
if finished compiling Linux kernel, following messages will be shown in your terminal

7. Install Linux kernel modules

sudo make modules_install

8. Install Linux kernel

sudo make install

you will see following messages shown in the terminal for boot menu entry generation

sh ./arch/x86/boot/install.sh 4.14.150 arch/x86/boot/bzImage \
	System.map "/boot"
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/apt-auto-removal 4.14.150 /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/initramfs-tools 4.14.150 /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.14.150
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/unattended-upgrades 4.14.150 /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/update-notifier 4.14.150 /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
run-parts: executing /etc/kernel/postinst.d/zz-update-grub 4.14.150 /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
Sourcing file `/etc/default/grub'
Generating grub configuration file ...
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.0.0-27-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.0.0-27-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-5.0.0-23-generic
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-5.0.0-23-generic
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.14.150
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.14.150
Found linux image: /boot/vmlinuz-4.8.0+
Found initrd image: /boot/initrd.img-4.8.0+
Adding boot menu entry for EFI firmware configuration
done

9. reboot ubuntu and choose the boot entry for 4.14.150