Hacking your navigation device will be HOT after the community develops three things.
If those three things happen I could see a ddwrt type of pack being developed.
There is little incentive to hack GPS or PDA devices:
One that is done and a certain mass of users are using the above data and algorithms; maps would become dynamic information sources constantly updated with road changes and maybe even real time road closures, road speed data, one way street information and other valuable tidbits. More advanced devices with accelerometers could make that data even clearer for eventual technology like eco routing.
If you have to have a hackable linux navigation solution now get a cheap umpc or netbook running igo 8 or another nav engine on wine.
Work expands to fill the time available. -- Cyril Northcote Parkinson, "The Economist", 1955