Building the Linux kernel on Ubuntu 10.04LTS

Step 1. Getting the kernel source code

wget bz2

Step 2. Uncompressing and untaring

tar xjvf linux-2.6.34.10.tar.bz2

Step 3. Configuring the kernel

cd linux-2.6.34.10

make menuconfig

Note: make sure you choose ext4 ext2 and set CONFIG_DEVTMPFS=y 

Step 4. Compiling the kernel

make 

make modules

Step 5. Installing the kernel

sudo make install 

sudo make modules_install

Step 6. Making an initrd image

cd /boot

sudo mkinitramfs -o initrd.img-2.6.34.10 2.6.34.10

Step 7. Grub2 configuration

sudo update-grub

Step 8. Rebooting your system

sudo reboot