Hi Dave,
1) you are correct, jtag can defeat all the signature checks, and you can then run anything you like on the box. The debug firmware only lets you modify the content files and not programs.
2) Linux, yes you are correct again. No drivers
as yet, altho I may know someone who can help...
3) Unsure... Ideally I would like to patch the software so the box does not need this.
4) Maybe... you could dump the boxes ram after it has booted up and running correctly... and you can modify where it downloads its bootstrap from in the tv2client.xml file.
5) Thats what I'm trying to do too... are you any good with C# ?
Hope that helps
Mick