...
next I added:
mkdir ~/aws
cd ~/aws
wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads/ec2-api-tools.zip
wget http://s3.amazonaws.com/ec2-downloads/ec2-qmiami-tools.zip
sudo unzip -d /opt/ ec2-api-tools.zip
sudo unzip -d /opt/ ec2-ami-tools.zip
export PATHEC2_HOME=$PATH:/opt/ec2-api-tools-1.3-34544/bin/ (but version # was different)
export EC2_HOME=/opt/ec2-api-tools-1.3-3454442584/
export PATH=$PATH:$EC2_HOME//bin/
export JAVA_HOME=/usr/
Now I was able to test the following command does sth
ec2-register
...