the loops I had to jump through are just daft
I was surprised to read this as well, having installed it easily before on various systems: OrangePi PC, Raspberry Pi, Intel X64, using the install script from here:
http://discussions.flightaware.com/ads-b-flight-tracking-f21/ads-b-receiver-project-setup-scripts-t36532.html
So I’ve just installed Ubuntu Server 16.04 on a PC, ran the install scripts and it works. All the hard work is taken care of by the script which has been tested and revised over many months.
You can choose from dump1090-fa or dump1090-mutability during the install together with Piaware. You don’t have to install the “Portal” but it gives some useful performance graphs.