I would go with KITWN's reply. To help more we'd need to know what setup you're using. Servo's or steppers for a start then as he said you should really use the stepconf or PNC conf wizard for your first setup. These tools will be installed when you install Linuxcnc.

That should get you started and then if there's still problems with it you can fill us in more.

The stepconf wizard basically sets up your HAL and INI files for you depending on the inputs you give it. Some things need to be added afterwards like coolant, ATC, further axis etc but once you have the basic setup you can then chase those monkeys seperately :-)