EMC BDI 2.20 Questions

I have installed the BDI 2.20 CD, but there are some issues. The
simulation mode appears to work fine. When I try to run it in a mode
with steppermod.o (or any of the non-simulation drivers) I get (in
the terminal):

Current platform is linux_2_2_18
Current real-time platform is rtlinux_3_0
inivar = plat/linux_2_2_18/bin/inivar
INIFILE = G1008.ini
RS274NGC_PARAMFILE = G1008.var
starting emc...
Removing module steppermod
rmmod: module steppermod is not loaded

At this point it hangs for quite a few minutes.
Eventually it coughs up:

/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/rtl.o
/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/mbuff.o
/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/rtl_time.o
/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/rtl_sched.o
/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/rtl_posixio.o
/sbin/insmod -f /lib/modules/2.2.18-rt13.0/misc/rtl_fifo.o
starting EMC MOTION PROGRAM -- steppermod.o...done
starting EMC IO PROGRAM -- bridgeportio...done
Version: 1.17
Machine: Fugly Alien
[EMC} IO_BASE_ADDRESS not found in G1008.ini; using default 278
inispin Index = 3

And then it comes up with tkEMC and apperas to work, though I have
not verified that signals are coming out of the parallel port.

So why is does it say it is removing Steppermod ? Why are there
three different steppermod.o files in the installed directories ?
Why is it hanging for so long before it comes up ? Is there an easy
way to recompile BDI 2.20 ( I cant find any of the makefiles)

In general I am wondering if I should be using BDI 220. Has it
fallen into neglect since EMC is being maintained by commercial
interests ? I would like to use the Live install but I want to run
on a junky old laptop.