Getting started with Inkcut questions... How to install, setup, test, and learn?

I'm a 50 year embedded software veteran (so no newby) but I'm new to cutters and Inkcut.
I'd like to get a cutter to make paint masks, but I don't know where to start and I want to be sure I can get something usable before I invest the $500 in a cutter.

I'll start with where I'm at.
- currently at Fedora 35
- I tried interpolating the instructions at www.codelv.com/projects/inkcut/docs/installing/
but that didn't get far because the package names are not available for Fedora, or may be named differently,
- so I assumed that the relevant software may already be installed so I blindly did the:
pip3 install inkcut

That installed and it seems to run, but how do I know it will work with, and drive a printer?
What do I need to test next?

I don't know what printer to get (recommendations are welcome), but one on my list that I'm led to believe may have the least compatibility/getting-to-work-issues is:
uscutter.com/USCutter-SC2-Series-Vinyl-Cutter/

That made me look at Inkcut's Device->Setup.
It asks what driver to use...
For this cutter would I just select 'Inkcut Generic Driver' ?

Or should I write to a file?
But what protocol needs to be selected for that printer?
and then could I just cat the file to the serial port?
(I'd be using a USB to serial DB9 dongle.)

I'm sure there are other questions I should be asking, but at this point I don't know what I need to know.

Thanks in advance for any advice anyone can give me.
Fulko

P.S. I tried installing/copying the Inkscape extension (as per the installation instructions reference above) and Inkcut is now listed, but I get the following errors when I have the extension 'open current document':

/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut_open.py:27: DeprecationWarning: inkex.localize was moved to inkex.localization.localize.
inkex.localize()
/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut.py:28: DeprecationWarning: The distutils package is deprecated and slated for removal in Python 3.12. Use setuptools or check PEP 632 for potential alternatives
from distutils.spawn import find_executable
/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut_open.py:66: DeprecationWarning: Effect.affect is now Effect.run(). The output argument has changed.
effect.affect()
/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut_open.py:53: DeprecationWarning: self.args[-1] is now self.options.input_file.
document = convert_objects_to_paths(self.args[-1], self.document)
Traceback (most recent call last):
File "/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut_open.py", line 66, in <module>
effect.affect()
File "/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/inkex/deprecated.py", line 183, in affect
return self.run(args=args)
File "/usr/share/inkscape/extensions/inkex/base.py", line 131, in run
self.save_raw(self.effect())
File "/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut_open.py", line 53, in effect
document = convert_objects_to_paths(self.args[-1], self.document)
File "/home/fhew/.config/inkscape/extensions/inkcut/inkscape/inkcut.py", line 38, in convert_objects_to_paths
tempfile = inkex.os.path.splitext(file)[0] + "-prepare.svg"
AttributeError: module 'inkex' has no attribute 'os'

Welcome. I know it's been two months, but in case some of this is still relevant to you other people I will try to answer your questions.

You could check this list of various devices that some people have reported as working or not working www.codelv.com/projects/inkcut/docs/supported-devices/
Although most of them don't have a preset in Inkcut so you might need to do some manual configuration.

In most cases the "drivers" you see when creating new device are just presets with basic config. And you can achieve the same result by changing settings for "Inkcut Generic driver". You can see the existing builtin configs in this file github.com/inkcut/inkcut/blob/master/inkcut/device/drivers/manifest.enaml . In theory the architecture supports a driver with completely custom logic, but I don't think anything except "R2Rv1" currently uses it.

Both sending commands directly to device, or outputting to file first and then sending file over to the serial port should be possible.

Unfortunately many manufacturers don't really document what protocols their devices support. So projects like Inkcut depend on volunteers who have access to devices and are willing to experiment with them to figure it out either by trial and error or sniffing the communication done by vendor supplied software.

All the existing US Cutter Inkcut configs list "hpgl" and "dmpl" as supported protocols. Not sure if they support both, or its just because main movement commands in those protocols are identical. With the differences being in more advanced features like software controlled force adjustment.

If you do get a vinyl cutter let us know how it goes. Both positive and negative results would be useful.

The extension probably needs to be updated to be compatible with latest Inkscape versions. Don't worry if you can't get the extension working, it more or less just opens current svg file in the standalone Inkcut program.