docs: record final 1.8.22 OTA and ISO acceptance

docs/next-release-20260930.md

@@ -1,6 +1,10 @@
 # Next OTA and raw ISO after 1.8.21
 
-**Status: implementation and acceptance in progress; NOT ready to release.**
+**Status: implementation and final OTA/raw ISO acceptance passed; draft upload verification and offline signing/publication remain.**
+
+Current acceptance evidence: [1.8.22 release acceptance](release-1.8.22-acceptance.md).
+The chronological notes below retain earlier failures and superseded candidates;
+the final tested source is `6d5f3ffb`.
 
 This is the consolidated execution checklist for the operator's chat requests.
 A targeted node repair is not completion of the release. Finish the remaining
@@ -45,16 +49,18 @@ completed. See PR review for the accepted scope and coverage limits.
 
 ## Final release checklist
 
-- [ ] Finish all new-scope implementation and specific acceptance above.
+- [x] Finish new-scope implementation and release acceptance; full-chain Angor
+      indexing still depends on the dev node finishing initial sync.
 - [x] Remove disposable fixtures and temporary test overrides; verify native
       Bitcoin/LND identity and start-state baselines remain protected.
 - [x] Commit and push completed source changes to git and ngit.
-- [ ] Run final backend/UI/regression/release gates on the final source; inspect
+- [x] Run final backend/UI/regression/release gates on the final source; inspect
       skipped tests and report actual hardware/runtime coverage.
 - [ ] Prepare compatible signed app catalog; old runtimes must not apply a
       migration before they have backup/recovery support.
 - [ ] Version/changelog and OTA payload prepared, validated and signed by user.
-- [ ] Raw ISO built; payload hashes/content verified; installer boot tested.
+- [x] Raw ISO built; payload hashes/content verified; full installation and
+      installed-system boot tested in QEMU/KVM without network.
 - [ ] User signs ISO checksums; publish OTA and ISO plus verification files on
       git and ngit; independently read back hashes and update discovery.
 - [ ] Provide LAN scp command for the new raw ISO.
@@ -430,3 +436,24 @@ ignored, through the isolated runner. This includes all new port-selection cases
 and the existing companion security/configuration and lifecycle regressions.
 Rebuild the release binary and UI metadata, deploy those exact OTA bytes to both
 boxes, and require actual kiosk hard-refresh/Launch acceptance before ISO assembly.
+
+
+## Final accepted artifacts — 1.8.22-alpha
+
+Source `6d5f3ffb` passed 1,617 backend tests (four explicit opt-in exclusions),
+1,133 frontend tests and final release gates. Exact OTA bytes were deployed to
+both boxes. Actual X250 kiosk NPM Launch, version/pruning, desktop/mobile
+readiness/AIUI, production Portainer Git/Compose and 12-minute stability checks
+on both boxes passed. No installed app was restarted by the safe diagnostics,
+and the Cuprate orphan stayed absent. Native Bitcoin/LND and the production site
+were preserved during final management deployment.
+
+The raw ISO passed mounted payload checks and matches all 653 OTA frontend/runtime
+files plus the backend. Full offline installation and installed UEFI boot to the
+visible setup screen passed in a disposable QEMU/KVM VM. Both installed doctor
+paths and the installed backend have the expected hashes. No VM wallet was set up.
+
+See `release-1.8.22-acceptance.md` for exact artifact hashes, hardware/runtime
+coverage and limits. Draft upload verification, offline signatures, publication
+and public readback remain; the fleet still advertises 1.8.21 until those gates
+finish. Do not confuse a draft asset or source push with completed publication.

docs/release-1.8.22-acceptance.md

@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+# Archipelago 1.8.22-alpha acceptance
+
+Source: `6d5f3ffb850bfd3dcd396bac986ba770935d1daa`.
+
+## Verified application and runtime changes
+
+- Full isolated backend suite: 1,617 passed, zero failed, four explicit opt-in exclusions.
+- Frontend suite: 1,133 passed. Final frontend and AIUI production builds succeeded.
+- Container suite: 79 passed. Catalog compatibility/trust, release manifest, build contexts, pruning, Lightning readiness, NPM migration, safe doctor, companion recovery and ISO doctor-overlay regressions passed.
+- Six companion dashboard images built using the current registry.
+- Final OTA backend SHA-256: `e108b78bbbd21cb7d5d47c8d0b7b9b19b63fb0c44678773603202440ec7d6f5b`.
+- Final OTA frontend SHA-256: `2da485a2da75ff2fbe4aba52d6f217150e303be43a031723480c9c4ff9d43f41`.
+
+## Live acceptance
+
+The exact OTA bytes were deployed to the development box and ThinkPad X250.
+Native Bitcoin/LND and the X250 production site retained their container identity
+and start time during these final management deployments. Both boxes completed
+12-minute observations including scheduled diagnostics with running containers
+and persistent mounts unchanged. The orphaned Cuprate dashboard stayed absent.
+
+Actual X250 Chromium kiosk: hard refresh, NPM Launch to the correct admin URL,
+visible login/admin page, readable inline Bitcoin version choices and pruning
+checkbox passed. No Bitcoin installation was triggered by this test.
+
+Final desktop/mobile checks passed for Bitcoin's IBD dashboard, one Mempool card,
+headless Phoenixd, LND waiting/unknown-balance behavior and all five transparent
+AIUI embedding layers. Standalone AIUI retains its wallpaper.
+
+Portainer's actual production network namespace fetched Git refs and the Compose
+file after final deployment. Original mounts were preserved. Earlier disposable
+fresh/reverse-install and migration/rollback tests, and the production host's
+operator-initiated reboot check, passed.
+
+Live Tor-only Cashu paid-file acceptance verified a one-satoshi net purchase,
+change, rejected-payment refund, exact file bytes, Files access and free repeat
+delivery. No native Bitcoin/LND funds were moved. PRs 161/162 are merged and
+closed; the open pull-request list is empty.
+
+## Boundaries
+
+- Angor's real dev API, fees, block tip, CORS and rootless/headless configuration
+  passed. Full-chain indexing remains dependent on initial Bitcoin sync finishing.
+- Optional live AI providers, physical RNode hardware, the opt-in Reticulum TCP
+  subprocess test and creation of a production Minibits profile were not run.
+- The previously recorded unsafe-doctor incident changed X250 container start
+  times before the final fix. Persistent databases were present after recovery,
+  but no pre-incident cryptographic wallet-identity baseline was available.
+  Do not describe recovery evidence as an exact pre-incident balance comparison.
+- No claim of perfect behavior on every device, network or future failure is made.
+
+## Raw ISO acceptance
+
+The raw ISO is 2,755,072,000 bytes. SHA-256:
+`cf7be6378dcd52f6f62774523341fa75dd453fa73a9cadff5390846f483e0140`.
+
+Mounted-artifact smoke checks passed, including BIOS/UEFI boot files, live-boot
+hooks, build contexts, current doctor overlay, crash-capture configuration,
+version and frontend payload. The ISO backend and all 653 OTA frontend/runtime
+files match exactly. AIUI metadata names the tested source commit.
+
+A disposable QEMU/KVM x86_64 VM with UEFI firmware, 3 GiB RAM, two vCPUs, a fresh
+64 GiB NVMe virtual disk and no network completed the full installation. This
+covered partitioning, LUKS2 data encryption, swap, system configuration, UEFI
+bootloader and initramfs generation. Cold boot with the ISO detached reached the
+visible Welcome to Archipelago setup screen. The installed backend and both
+historical/current doctor paths matched source hashes. Backend/nginx were active;
+health reported RPC/sessions ready, crash recovery complete and version 1.8.22.
+No wallet was initialized in this disposable VM.
+
+The first automatic VM reboot selected the still-attached installer ISO. That
+was corrected in the test configuration by detaching the ISO and explicitly
+booting NVMe. It was not accepted as an installed-system boot. The subsequent
+cold boot above is the successful acceptance run.
+
+The dev native Bitcoin/LND identity/start-time baseline also remained unchanged
+after the ISO build and VM acceptance.
+
+## Publication pending
+
+Artifacts are staged in a draft release. Upload/readback verification and the
+operator's offline signatures must complete before promoting the fleet manifest
+and signed app catalog or publishing the Git/ngit releases.