CM11 M8 or M9 no boot?

[maxburn]

Short story is I followed their directions and the phone would never boot.

Long story is all here and it was a bad trip:
Little First Time Help? Not Booting - Google Nexus 5 - hammerhead - CyanogenMod Forum

Any ideas why I couldn't simply boot several CM images?

 

[srkmagnus]

Makes use the recovery is updated and you have Wiped everything (data, cache, system, boot). Flash the ROM then gapps and reboot. First boot will always be the longest (5 minutes or more), so be patient.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[maxburn]

I got a response in that forum saying to use another recovery entirely, TWRP.

The only thing I saw that I didn't wipe was the boot. You sure about wiping that? My understanding is the phone is a brick without this partition so I was going to let their sideloaded image for CM11 handle rewriting the boot/kernel.

I've wiped the boot plenty of times returning the phone to stock but I always had a boot to flash right back in from google.

None of this seems to fit in with the procedures they outlined in their instructions, you'd think they would make the basics work.