How to know if it's running?
Your wallet is connecting to any nodes, so thats your first problem.
Once you have a node / seednode i can help you.
you need a .conf file, i'm guessing you know where that goes?
it needs to contain
rpcuser=user (any username)
rpcpassword=password (any password)
server=1
daemon=1
listen=1
rpcallowip=127.0.0.1
rpcport=5555 (any port, but best to goto wallet, HELP, SHOW commands, and the default rpc port will be listed)
Then you need to start the wallet with ./mycoin - server
If it can't find the correct .conf, in the correct location, it usually shows you what it should be called, and where it expects to find it....
./minerd --algo=scrypt --url=http://127.0.0.1t:5555 -u user -p password --coinbase-addr=TDuGXYumssr2Xw2utvXyEYNCdFtTj5XguV -t 4
I have used "scrypt" because you said it was based on"litecoin", you need to use tha wallet to create a new receive address....give it a name of solo, then if you eventually make a pool, you can see what comes from where.
technically you can just use the first address, but i always find that creating a new one works...no idea why.
If that fails, drop me a DM, i can try your wallet on my PC and see if i can get you going.
J