My original bootmenu issues were fixed by installing Deblet Bootmenu. After installing that and b-man's rootstrap I could chroot, add some swap and apt-get install sys-env-x to get a basic Jaunty install.

But problems with the ports repo meant I couldn't try ubuntu-desktop so I installed Xubuntu instead. I have a N800 so installed onboard & xvkbd before booting (apt-get install + edit /etc/gdm/Init/Default to load it with -always-on-top before login screen) - gok wouldn't install due to the broken repos.

Anyway it booted, xvkbd worked but generally sucked - painfully slow plus it kept repeating the last key I clicked but I managed to log on and it did eventually login to the desktop.

While its a great achievement to see Xubuntu running on the N800 it was painfully slow and I couldn't get the accessibility setting app to load so you have to edit the config files manually to set up xvkbd after login.

Hopefully the regular ubuntu-desktop works better, but I think its too slow for any form of productive use. Still early days.

Many thanks to b-man and xnt for making this possible and helping on IRC.

-PG