-[ ! -e $HOME/host ] && ln -s /mnt/host $HOME/host
-
-packages=$(zenity --list $icon_opt --checklist --column="Install" --column="Description" \
+# note: -e check would exit 1 if link is broken
+# ln -f is used for further robustness
+[ ! -L $HOME/host ] && ln -sf /media/sf_host $HOME/host
+
+# Figure out which version of IPython is available
+ipython_version=$(apt-cache policy ipython 2>/dev/null | sed -ne '/Version table:/ { n;s,^[ \*]*\(.*\) .*,\1,gp}')
+dpkg --compare-versions $ipython_version lt 0.13.1 && ipython=ipython01x || ipython=ipython,ipython-notebook,ipython-qtconsole
+
+# TODO: add PyMVPA:
+# FALSE "PyMVPA" "python-mvpa2,python-mvpa2-doc,python-mvpa2-tutorial-data" \
+# needs -doc and -tutorial-data package
+packages=$(zenity --height 450 --list $icon_opt --checklist --column="Install" --column="Description" \