Candyhouse IPFire
IPFire is a hardened Linux appliance distribution designed for use as a firewall. This build is based on the pre-existing ARM/Kirkwood port.
Get the IPFire ARM image from the source:
Zcat that compressed image to a blank USB stick, 1G or larger. After zcat finishes, put the USB stick into your router.
Clone the ipfire branch of Candyhouse-Linux and build yourself a uImage.
Flash your router with the uImage you just created and watch over your serial port as your router boots IPFire. Setting up IPFire requires a serial connection as it blocks the boot so you can setup the network. There are no defaults.