Silly of me to reply since I’m so out of the game at this point but…
Go here and download the Debian 12 Bookworm ISO. This will “install a full Debian system with the required realtime kernel and the linuxcnc-uspace application. It uses a PREEMPT-RT patched kernel which is close to mainstream Linux but does not, in some cases, give quite such good realtime performance as the previous RTAI kernel. It is very often more than good enough. It should probably be the first version tried even if using a parallel port. This is compatible with all Mesa and Pico interface boards.”
I’ve never had difficulty with the LinuxCNC “Live CD” ISO images in the past… just boot it, play with it a bit to insure it seems to runs okay on your hardware, and then click on the install icon. You have opportunity to set it up for dual-booting with your current OS or to be the only OS on the disk. No installing the OS, “mucking” with custom kernels. or installing LinuxCNC… it’s all there: i.e. the Debian OS, the RT kernel, and LinuxCNC itself. There’s even a RaspberryPi version of LinuxCNC.
If you have some Linux experience and a grasp of what you’re trying to do CNC-wise… I doubt it could be easier. I’ve played with the parallel port and RaspberryPi4 GPIO versions of LinuxCNC and even developed a couple of “Inexpensive LinuxCNC Interfaces” for it, i.e. parallel port and RPi4 GPIO. I’ve not played with the Mesa and Pico interface boards… but I suspect they are definitely the way to go for anyone somewhat serious about it.
I’ll shut up now… just my $0.02.
– David