[gnome-love] How to build Gnome

[Joost van der Hoff <2noob2banoob gmail com>]

I want to build my own Gnome. I would also like to apply a patch I found 
on the internet, but just building Gnome with no modifications would 
already be a nice step.
I first tried Jhbuild (from the Ubuntu / Linux Mint repository, adding 
some missing modules from the source version on GIT). However it did not 
work because it did not recognize waf modules, even though I installed 
waf and added the Jhbuild waf module to the jhbuild/modtypes directory.
Next I tried Garnome, but it exited with a 404 - not found error. Seems 
some download it requests no longer exists or something like that.
Does anyone have any idea how to fix the issue with one of these tools, 
or alternatively manually download and compile the full Gnome 
sourcecode? Any help would be appreciated.

P.s. I do want the possibility to install under a different prefix, so 
that it would also appear with a different name in my session list (on 
the login screen).

P.s.2 for the curious, the patch I found on the internet is supposed to 
add a prelight effect to top-level menubar items.