the 32 bit board will look for firmware files on power up and automatically install them.

I usually use an sd card - but if you have a usb input - guess you could use that.

Compiling marlin is usually done throuh IDE - which is an horrendous piece of software that I hate more than I hate The inland revenue (okay maybe not quite that much, more than I hate facebooks software then). if there is another way to compile marlin I'd love to try it.

Not sure why you're talking about giving up on your printer. You've barely started.
have you even printed anything yet ?

Not as bad as the chap who was going to send one back - that he'd had at discount and was clearly pre-owned - because it was scratched.
And again without trying to use it.

Not sure what you've got going on with the z-axis, but the other axis are behaving correctly. Y = front to back and x = left to right.