 <p>Just to let you know, Linux is just a kernel, <strong><em>NOT</em></strong> a full operating system. If you expect it to be a full operating system, you will need to also include other things like the GNU Coreutils. Otherwise you'll be left with something almost useless to use and impossible to install on its own.</p> <p>To compile the kernel, you'll need to have an existing install of some flavor of Linux (Ubuntu, Fedora, Arch, etc).</p> <p>Basically, in essence, you get a copy of the Linux code, then you simply run <code>make</code>.</p> <p>This is how Arch Linux builds the Linux kernel: <a href="https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=packages/linux" rel="nofollow">https://projects.archlinux.org/svntogit/packages.git/tree/trunk/PKGBUILD?h=packages/linux</a></p>