For the first part, do you mean you copy the .img file over to the SD card?
The .img file is a full disk image an is all you need. You should use an SD card imager (see writing sd card image) to write this to the SD card. This creates a bootable SD card image.
If you just copy files over it won’t be a bootable SD card.
You also don’t need to copy the boot.bin and the image.ub. The are included in the .img file.
For the second part … just don’t do this 
Let’s try fix the image build.
By the way, is there any reason you are not using v2.6?
If you get this image working and can host it on a google drive or similar, you could add your build steps and link to the image here:
https://discuss.pynq.io/t/3rd-party-images-for-zynq-boards/431/3?u=cathalmccabe
Cathal