Ok, I'm on a quest to add a package installer to the Central, so I can easily install new software. I figure dpkg would be fine. Here's what I've figured out so far:

Make sure you use debian potato. Woody uses a different gcc version.

Here's the arm potato dist I found:
http://archive.debian.org/dists/Debian-2.2/main/binary-arm/base/

Commands:

ar p dpkg_1.6.15.deb data.tar.gz > dpkg_1.6.15.tar.gz

I dropped that onto my ftp site and downloaded it onto the Central.

cd /
rw
tar xvfz dpkg_1.6.15.tar.gz
echo "" > /var/lib/dpkg/available
echo "" > /var/lib/dpkg/status
PATH=$PATH:/usr/sbin; export PATH

Now I get this wierd error from dpkg:
"dpkg not recorded as installed, cannot check for epoch support"

I'm giving up for today, but I'll be at it again tomorrow.