1) Is it reasonable to expect it to be possible to patch the kernel with the LVS (http://www.linuxvirtualserver.org/) patches and have the WRT54G act as a load balancer ? I realise there would be limitations based on the power of the processor but that is not a big issue.

2) Are there any good how-to's on preparing a suitable build environment for openwrt ? I have been looking through the forums but couldn't find anything definitive, I remember back in the day preparing an appropriate tool chain to compile images for the Dreamcast but its been so long and I'm stoopid