My setup Process confusion

Thank you for the information KCJ.
Step 5 looks simple enough. Great! simple is good.
Step 6 I am talking about locating the part on the table with the drewtronics probe. Best i can figure is that the probe is tool 99. The probe routines in probe basic is the reason for wanting to run it.
I think running the tool setter and the probe in series is not the best way to go due to normally closed nature of the circuits for both. I would need them both active during tool changes. I will look to see if there is a:
#---PROBE-IN-2--- (or something similar).
Also i have to research HAL logic to find out what that is.
Step 7:
YES!! A macro something that says:
a. start program
b. put a tool in machine
c. measure tool, write tool information to tool table
d. start cutting
e. finished roughing take out tool
f. rinse and repeat for each operation
Is there a place where people can find these macros?

Thank you for all the help everyone.

Thank you all for helping me out so far.

It would seem that my troubles and woes have just begun.
So far I am able to log into linuxcnc and update it. other than that. Wget command does not work. I am unable to add repositories in terminal or synaptic. My PCIe-ethernet card is not being recognized by the OS. I am unable to install something network manager-gnome.

Ah and I flung a tiny jumper from the mesa card across the garage.

In a nutshell it seems that i am locked out of everything I think I need to do. I think I am pretty stuck.
I have no problems wiping it and starting over if that needs to happen.
Also there seems to be something going around about using an alternate OS and putting -rt- on it.

If anyone has any recommendations, I am all ears.

Thank you all for your time.

Hey Andypugh,

I did not make a cd. I made a USB with Rufus from the 2.8 download on the linuxcnc website. The download is the current recommended from website.

I was wondering how they got their name. Haha.

Is it wise to try installing using mint linux?

Or should I be able use the terminal to get repositories and applications?

Do most people go through this fire when trying to make their machines work, I wonder.

Unless I hear back I will start a fresh install this evening after work.

Thanks for helping me out.

Let the strangeness continue!!!

This is so weird.
I reinstalled linuxcnc 2.8. same one. Now it seems that my terminal are working.
Except the ls-utils. I had to install them.
followed the instructions for setting up the network manager and removing WICD network manager.
The onboard NIC works well (internet). The PCI-e card (for the mesa board) is shown when I use lspci -vv, both cards are in fact.

Here is the rub. The network manager does not see the PCIe card at all. So I have no way to tell it about the static IP i want to use.

i am not sure what is going on with this.
My confusion is great, great confustion, meat combustion...

Thanks for all the help!