Sorry about the difficulties. I should have responded earlier, but things have been a bit busy!
Lets start with some specifics. I used the full desktop version of Raspbian. You can get that here: Raspberry Pi OS – Raspberry Pi
I used Etcher to put that on an SD card and then assembled everything.
I connected a keyboard and mouse to the device so I could do the scripted PiAware install here: PiAware - dump1090 ADS-B integration with FlightAware - FlightAware
How’s that? Helpful? Happy to answer any questions.