Build and qualify the LuigiOS COSMIC workstation and recovery stack

[55515-code]

What changed

• Pivots LuigiOS to a CachyOS-based COSMIC developer workstation with one branded, offline-capable Calamares installation path.
• Adds the LuigiOS Setup & Recovery experience for installation, full offline upgrades, signed package repair, and data-preserving Fresh Start.
• Adds a machine-readable recovery policy, permanent installation snapshot, PolicyKit boundary, preservation manifests, tamper rejection, and previous-root retention.
• Adds a complete LuigiOS visual system across COSMIC, icons, boot, greeter, terminal, Code OSS, installer, and system identity.
• Adds pinned package and source inputs, a rootless release builder, ISO inspection, product contracts, decentralized distribution policy, and contributor SDK direction.
• Updates the README, changelog, roadmap, contribution guidance, community links, and qualification tracker to reflect the current project honestly.

Why

LuigiOS is now a polished general-purpose CachyOS/COSMIC developer workstation rather than the earlier Steam Deck/Buildroot prototype still visible on the old default branch. This change makes the current architecture, implementation, safety model, validation evidence, and contribution paths public together.

Validation

• ./tools/ci-check: 20/20 product and recovery contract tests passed.
• Exact package closure: 868 locked packages across 152 package roots.
• Guarded destructive Btrfs QA passed on a disposable 4 GiB VM disk.
• Recovery QA retained the old root, preserved all persistent-subvolume identities, kept the user-data digest unchanged, quarantined risky overrides, and rejected tampering before cutover.
• Final release ISO structurally inspected; SHA-256 01fb57613b16d893e0bb3231935dad7cc6822e50bf0ae363a2baddf8e942204a.
• Clean offline install to a new 64 GiB QCOW2 disk completed.
• Two independent cold boots reached the branded greeter; both logins produced the complete top panel and dock.
• Installed guest reported zero failed system units and zero failed user units.
• DCO verified for every commit in the PR range.

Current truth

The branch produces a VM-beta LuigiOS image and the guarded recovery mechanics now pass disposable-VM qualification. It is not yet a general end-user release, physical hardware is not qualified, and recovery remains blocked from physical cutover until the documented UEFI and hardware gates pass.

Community

• Contributor and hardware qualification tracker: Contributor call: qualify the LuigiOS COSMIC workstation on real hardware #12
• Discord: https://discord.gg/BDfCJPUeVG
• Discussions: https://github.com/55515-code/LuigiOS/discussions

Remaining work

• Complete UEFI live-media upgrade, repair, Fresh Start, previous-root rollback, repeated cold-boot, and login qualification.
• Complete the physical hardware matrix, including Secure Boot, graphics vendors, networking, audio, suspend/resume, firmware updates, storage, and multi-monitor behavior.
• Extend the SDK with declarative customization, isolated test deployment, reporting, and rollback-aware application.

[55515-code]

Community coordination is now open in #12 for hardware qualification, SDK/reproducibility review, recovery work, documentation, and accessibility testing.

If you want to contribute, please claim a focused lane there and report the exact hardware or VM configuration you can cover: #12

Discord coordination: https://discord.gg/BDfCJPUeVG

This remains a VM-beta draft; no general hardware-support or end-user release claim is being made.