Alpha.14 recover via exact attested block path

[Deadbytes101]

Purpose

Fix the Alpha.13 physical failure tracked by #31 without broadening USB-state targeting.

Alpha.13 correctly recognized the Rust e2fsck: exit Some(4) condition and advanced into bounded recovery. After the core resize2fs timeout, however, /dev/disk/by-partuuid/5249474f-04 was unavailable. Recovery therefore stopped even though the current-boot attestation still identified the exact state partition as /dev/sdb4 with a fixed major:minor identity.

Changes

• advance the next immutable artifact to 0.0.4-alpha.14
• retain PARTUUID-symlink authority whenever the symlink exists
• when the PARTUUID symlink is absent, allow only the exact current-boot attested state path
• require the fallback path to resolve under /dev
• require a real block device with the exact attested state major:minor
• require the state sysfs node to be a direct child of the exact attested boot-disk sysfs node
• retain exact ext4 type, RIGOS state label, PARTUUID, and unmounted checks
• reject an existing PARTUUID symlink that resolves anywhere other than the attested state path
• retain bounded filesystem commands and fail-closed configuration/miner behavior
• add behavioral source tests and exact-image assertions for missing-link fallback and substitution rejection

Safety boundary

No internal disk targeting is added. The fallback is reachable only from a current-boot verified boot-device attestation and must preserve exact state path, state major:minor, boot-disk parent major:minor, ext4 identity, expected label, exact PARTUUID, and unmounted state. Any mismatch remains repair_required.

Stacked relationship

This draft is based on fix/alpha13-state-e2fsck-option-exit. It must remain unmerged until exact-head source verification, Alpha.14 exact-image verification, physical state recovery, password restoration across reboot, persistent SSH identity, configuration activation, and miner startup all pass.

[Deadbytes101]

Implementation complete at exact head 3762791a3ac7a06101a4e11aa337acee7ef612e8.

Alpha.14 now retains PARTUUID-link authority when present and uses the current-boot attested state path only when that link is absent. The fallback requires an actual block device, exact attested state major:minor, exact attested boot-disk sysfs parent, ext4 identity, expected RIGOS label, exact PARTUUID, and unmounted state. An existing PARTUUID link resolving elsewhere is rejected.

Source and exact-image tests were updated for the missing-link physical case and substitution rejection. Source gate and image build remain pending.

[Deadbytes101]

Alpha.14 exact-head WSL source verification passed.

Authority:

• branch: fix/alpha14-state-attested-path-fallback
• exact head: 3762791a3ac7a06101a4e11aa337acee7ef612e8
• worktree: clean
• full workspace tests and doc-tests: passed
• diagnostic SSH persistent/ephemeral authority tests: passed
• Alpha.14 firstboot image gate assertions: passed
• state resize recovery tests, including exact attested-path fallback safety coverage: passed
• schema check: passed
• release build: passed
• systemd ordering verification: passed
• final markers:
  • RIGOS verification passed
  • RIGOS firstboot theme wrapper verification passed
  • RIGOS_WSL_SOURCE_GATE=PASS

The PowerShell System.Management.Automation.RemoteException lines were stream-formatting noise; every affected Python suite ended OK, and the authoritative process completed with the final PASS marker.

Next gate: build and verify the Alpha.14 exact USB image from this unchanged head. PR remains draft/open/unmerged pending image and physical acceptance.

[Deadbytes101]

Alpha.14 exact-image authority passed at exact head 3762791a3ac7a06101a4e11aa337acee7ef612e8 with a clean worktree.

Artifact:

• image: rigos-usb-amd64-0.0.4-alpha.14.img
• SHA-256: 5a85aa8cff0588c34bcd4b54a2913778b5b06d87d011e9f77469da1f7b3f6612
• manifest source commit: exact head
• manifest image version: 0.0.4-alpha.14
• checksum sidecar: PASS

Exact-image gates passed:

• USB appliance
• RandomX performance
• authenticated XMRig observer
• firstboot exact-image
• state recovery and recovery-credential authority

The build wrapper exited cleanly with ALPHA14_EXACT_IMAGE_BUILD=PASS. Keep this PR draft/open/unmerged pending physical state recovery, persistent password restoration across reboot, persistent SSH identity, configuration activation, and miner startup.