I stumbled over the same two things a few days ago. Unfortunately, the Maemo 5 Beta 2 SDK Installation docs can't be that easily edited. Who is the responsible editor? Should we file bugs in the bugzilla for this?

After the download, I had to do the
to be able to launch the shell script.

And then to permanently change the VDSO support in my Ubuntu as described in a post from Karoliina:

Code:

$ sudo su
$ nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Add a new line

Code:

vm.vdso_enabled = 0

to the end of file.
Press ctrl-x to exit and save.
Then (while remaining as root) run:

Code:

sysctl -p

Finally type

Code:

exit

to return to previous shell

Now you can finally
This will get scratchbox and install it on your system. Time needed: 5-10 minutes

Once this has finished, do:
Will take another 5-10 minutes to install.

Then setup is complete. You can now launch scratchbox etc. according to the article.
Unfortunately, you then have only a very empty "virtual N900" to play around. Best thing is to add the Fremantle Extras repositories to your installation: create the file(s) /etc/apt/sources.list.d/extras-repo.list under your scratchbox targets.

This will then enable you to apt-get some applications to have something to play around :-)