@TrashyMG: ohh! Thank you very much!  I never knew you could just load applications from terminal (tough it makes sense  :wacko:  )
What I ended up doing to make the "Wiimote Configurator" pnd work goes as follows:
after getting the pnd, run (sudo opkg update).  when that finishes (which took about 4 minutes for me, superzaxxon final)  run  (sudo install cwiid).  If you run the app now, it will likely say "unable to open uinput".   What I did was run (sudo modprobe uinput).  This should look like it does nothing at all, but if you run Wiimote Configurator and select a controller style, it should prompt you to press 1+2.  Minimize terminal and game away!
@ANYONE:  please tell me if this works for you!!!