I know when I first installed the Fremantle SDK the Application Manager just would not launch (well, it would launch then just crash immediately). Now it works fine, don't know what changed... Are you able to customize the home screen any? Or just do any logical interaction with the UI? Also, it may be helpful to post a screenshot of what you're actually seeing.
AF Warning: '/etc/osso-af-init/matchbox.defs' not found Note: For remote X connections DISPLAY should contain hostname! Sample files present. Starting DBUS system bus Starting D-BUS session bus daemon Starting Maemo Launcher: maemo-launcher. Starting Sapwood image server Starting hildon-desktop Starting Keyboard [sbox-FREMANTLE_X86: ~] > sapwood-server[11524]: GLIB INFO default - server started hildon-desktop[11537]: GLIB WARNING ** default - Error loading cached background image /home/dneary/.backgrounds/background-1.pvr. Failed to open file '/home/dneary/.backgrounds/background-1.pvr': No such file or directory