So I'm compiling linux from source and on "sudo make install" it doesn't work, I figured since make install only works with LiLO and I'm on GRUB, if anyone knew what make install does, so I could just do it manually. Thanks in advance!

WHAT

how are you using "sudo" to build the operating system when there is NO OS built ?
how can you have sudo setup and users added if there are NO users yet to add ?

What is it you are building ?

"make" and "make install" works for any make file build ( as long as it dose build on the OS )
it is NOT only for the bootloader lilo

so WHAT is it you are building ?
"linux from scratch" ? and have you read the book for it ?( you can buy it from amazon )
or something else ?

You could always run 'make -n install 2>&1 | tee make_install.log'. The "-n" means doing a dry run and the 'tee make_install.log' allows you to read back or grep your make_install.log log file for specifics later on.

I think I worded it wrong, let me rephrase: I'm building Linux itself (from kernel.org) I did "make menuconfig", "make modules", "make modules_install", etc.... so now i'm on the final step of make install, and make won't cp the files, or edit the GRUB config. Does that help anyone? or is it still confusing.

Mmm, so, does "make" report any error? Or are you just assuming it's not copying the files into /boot?

It's not "make"'s task to edit your bootloader config files. You are the one to do that. In grub2 you have a tool to do that for you (grub-mkconfig), though you can always edit grub.cfg, menu.lst or grub.conf under /boot/grub/ by hand to add the new kernel.

You can see all the kernel images you have installed usually by doing ls /boot/, if /boot is into a separate partition you will need to mount it first, also before doing "make install" (otherwise you are installing it into the wrong place).

so it is the kernel you are building
( i incorrectly assumed that a new user was calling "Linux" the operating system )

make will not edit the grub.conf - that is up to you to do by hand

as to copping them to there installed location
can you post the FULL command you are using
and also the Operating system you are building the new ( guessing it is the current release ?? but have NO way of knowing .) kernel on
and it's( the OS) version -- Arch or Ubuntu


and also why build it and not use the already built and configured and Arch.xz or ubuntu.deb ?
they have scripts that will change settings