There is no prerequisite background to use this document, beside being able to launch a shell command under GNU/Linux either in a text display or in an Xterm, to be able to edit a text file using whatever text editor you are familiar with, and know how to use the iPAQ user interface.
For this guide, I used a Compaq (now HP) iPAQ 3850 iPAQ running PocketPC 2002, but all the given examples should work without problem on other iPAQs too, as long as they have a serial connection capability. I will be glad to add new targets if you succeeded in doing it on other platforms.
Of course, you will need a computer running the Linux operating system. For this guide, I used the Red Hat 7.2 distribution, but it should work on others, with minor changes due to distribution-specific glitches.
This computer will need to be connected to the Internet, as the transformation requires downloading some files for the iPAQ. It is also possible to pre-download them and work locally.
In order to download files to the iPAQ, the computer will also have to run either an FTP and/or an HTTP (like apache) server.