Alright, I got a pre-installed Debian Lenny VDI file running in Virtual box (after some pain editing the xml files of VirtualBox and then realizing I didn't know the passwords for the preinstalled image, so I had to figure out how to get a shell from the kernel boot screen to be able to run the passwd command). Now I feel read to try to install the Virtual Machine image that has the SDK preinstalled - not sure if I found the right ones, but I downloaded a few that I found through the links on the Development section of this site... We'll see what happens.

-Edit1-
Well, I figured out how to import the right machine, it looks like - the one from downloads.maemo.org, in the PC section. I currently have the scratchbox installing script running. This is exciting - no hacking needed to just get to the desktop so far.
-Edit2-
Now stuck at the fourth install script. The one that installs the nokia binaries. Keeps telling me I have no active target in scratchbox chroot and to create one before continuing by running sb-menu.... Tried running sb-menu, can't make heads or tails of what it wants. Will experiment a bit, then it's time for documentation reading.