I tried to make an operating system with my on custom built kernel. It didn't work out too well. I am using Ubuntu and have downloaded Linux 3.2.7 from kernel.org . I am not trying to change the kernel in my Ubuntu system. I want to make my own OS with Grub, the Linux kernel and I want to be able to have this homebrew OS in a file type (such as iso) that I can put on a cd and boot on another computer. My question is: what exactly do I need to make this OS? Any comments or tutorials would be helpful.
How do I begin with building a Linux system from scratch?
grub2;kernel;iso
Here's what you're looking for:  http://www.linuxfromscratch.org/