Install nightmares! HELP! RH 6.2 Krnl 2.2.14-RTL2.2

[Brian Greul <bgreul-at-swbell.net>]

Hi gang,
 I feel like I'm playing Dungeons' and Dragons.  First I slayed the linux beast, and then the RT Linux scorpion... now i'm having trouble picking the lock on the EMC treasure chest.... :)

Before I get started:  YES I know about the BDI.  But I've worked so hard, I feel that is cheating.  Besides, I really want to learn more about Unix and the BDI won't help me there.

Hardware:
Pentium 200, 97MB Ram, 4GB HDD, 10MB Ethernet, SVGA monitor, CDR, Floppy

Software:
O/S: Currently Redhat 6.2 (zoot)
Kernel 2.2.14
RTLinux 2.2

History:
I tried this on RH 7.x (whew what a nightmare)  
5 builds later I tried RH 5.2  It seems to be fading and couldn't get anything to work....
so I rebuilt as 6.2.  

Sidenote: Lawrence Glaister - You ROCK.  Your document is the only thing that got me this far.

Situation:
I have RTLinux and RH Linux running.
I can CVS the source.
however
./installfromsource doesn't work....
It runs andall
but I get some error messages:

primarily in the emcerr.log

LMEM::RTLMEM(char *, char *, int, int)'  = some sort of compiler error
collect2: ID returned 1 exit status
make[1]: *** [/usr/loca/nist/emc/plat/linux_2_2-14/bin/testppt] Error 1
make: *** [all] Error 2
emcmot.c:639: warning: 'positionInputDebounce' defined but not used

that's it.

Now for a moment of whining: (just a moment)

1.  Great work to all involved in putting the documentation together.....
2.  I'm a degreed (computer related), certified, IT consultant who does have some programming experience, but little to no practical Linux experience.  Although I have hacked my Tivo.
3.  This is WAY too difficult for the avg schmoe.  I'm sure the BDI helps, but it doesn't teach anyone why you set things the way you do.  
Example: Lawrence's doc is for SCSI.  Only because I've screwed with partitions in Tivo did I recognize that my IDE box should have HDA references instead of SDA references.  
4. The documentation is ALL OVER THE PLACE... very frustrating to chase down and try to find.  The way the Tivo community organizes their info is very very slick and easy to access.  We might borrow some ideas from them.  They are hacking a OS with no support and modifying it to surpass the designers limits.

Anyway, it should be easier.... that's all.  I think that the different Linux apps present challenges within themselves and that often people are empowered to be more familiar with Linux through pursuit of these applications....
-Brian


P.S. In case you are wondering what I'm driving and up to:
Mill: Taig 2019 wide format mill (as opposed to standard)
Vexta Stepper motors
Parker Compumotor 650X based dual controllers OEM'd by IDC - btw, IDC was of no help, but parker had FULL docs... kudos to Parker... shame on IDC

I am mainly interested in desiging and milling small robotics parts, hobby type projects (such as a tool holder for my mill bits), and I would like to have a small sign business as well.  I'm pursuing EMC because it uses older and less expensive (disposable) hardware.  EMC specifically because I can do my design work on a NT box (hush - no comments on NT), and send them via the network to my Linux based machine.  If EMC doesn't start to do what I want, I'm going to go to a DOS based application.  I just hate to go DOS based.  
Cheers,
Brian