Answers to questions...
I did write a software package that upgrades the maps, but my tester never got back to me so I never released it. I don't know, maybe he's using it and he had worked out that I won't release it without feedback, so he's keeping quiet about it so only he has it?
Forscan can be used to reset the FG2
ICC - or you can pull the power. Both have the same risk of the black screen of death. But you can't update the firmware on these yourself, you will need to take it to someone who has both the equipment and the software package.
Yes, it's possible to install lots of Linux stuff, as long as you can work out how to compile it for QNX as some things may need to be changed. Things like compression libs are the easiest to do, they're just data in and data out. Python? Not sure how hard it is to compile that, so maybe it's possible, at least until you get to the operating system interfaces / libraries. But then all interfaces inside these units are already in-use except the serial port going to the GPS module, and only if you don't have the high-end unit. That's the one I'm using for "everything" with multiplexing drivers. So I have a bunch of virtual serial ports hanging off the one physical one. I'm not sure what the killer-app would be to install on these though? Except VNC maybe, which I've already done, but it's quite slow.