Ericshliao, thank you very much for the reply. In the meantime I have discovered Adam B.'s "tester.zip". If I unterstood Adam's post correctly (it's post Nr. 34 in "the absolute n00b guide to installing applications" thread) installing and running it is a fail-safe way of finding out if one has the developer's package and shell access or not. What I did is copy the unzipped file to the internal storage of my Iliad. It appeared in the content manager and was displayed as a file with an "sh" extension. However, there was a cross over it, meaning the Iliad couldn't operate on it. That then is conclusive evidence that my Iliad has no shell, isn't it? In case my device had shell access, I would have been able to run the file, I guess.
So I am wondering, is there any other way to get shell access?
The Irex servers are down as far as I know. However, I have heard about another method whereby you achieve the same effect with the help of a pre-arranged CF-Card. Do you possibly know something about that? I have read about this in another, older thread but couldn't possibly find it now. For me getting shell access is paramount, as it would enable me to attach an external keyboard to the Iliad. That's the main reason I bought it, as no other reader past and present is able to do that. Sadly enough, I had never considered getting a barely or never used item might have negative side-effects.
That does make me richer for one experience, if nothing else.
kontrabas