OK, I figured out how to extract the root JFFS2 image from Nokia's "Fiasco" image, and how to mount it on my Linux box.

The problem is that Maemo depends on its GUI utilities to configure the network, all pertinent settings are stored in the gconfig database - it would be difficult to set this up remotely.

It might be easier to strip the image down to something more resembling a basic Debian installation, and to figure out how to configure the WLAN interface via shell scripts.