INKademic v1.7.1-rc.2

INKademic v1.7.1-rc.2

This release candidate adds a browser-based firmware update flow to the
existing device web interface. It is intended to make recovery and upgrades
possible through the same local connection used to send books, while retaining
the watchdog-safe A/B flash path introduced in v1.7.1-rc.1.

Browser firmware updates

• Open File Transfer, browse to /firmware, select the .bin matching the
  device, and upload it.
• The device stages the image on the SD card and validates its ESP image
  structure, segment boundaries, running chip ID, size, XOR checksum, and
  appended SHA-256 trailer before exposing the install action.
• Installation is a separate explicit action. The HTTP response returns first;
  the main application task then flashes the inactive A/B partition using the
  sector-sized, watchdog-safe writer and reboots.
• The page persists state across reconnects and reports interrupted or failed
  installations rather than silently retrying them.
• POST /upload remains the book/file endpoint; it does not install firmware.

Security and limitations

The web server has no authentication. Use the page only on a private network
or a device hotspot that you control. This route performs image integrity and
device-compatibility checks, but this build does not enforce Ed25519 signatures
because the private release-signing key is not present in the repository. Do
not treat a browser upload as proof of publisher authenticity.

The feature is present only after this release is installed. It cannot repair a
device that cannot boot far enough to start the web server; use the documented
X4 Pro recovery/bootstrap path for that situation.

Published artifacts

Variant	File	Size	SHA-256
X3 / X4	firmware-x3-x4-v1.7.1-rc.2.bin	6,220,944 bytes	d7d792bddecc7d8c359da5be8a482585371bc9f3a3234a215aa31c3512bac383
X4 Pro	firmware-x4-pro-v1.7.1-rc.2.bin	6,125,728 bytes	c682399e2145780229c2ae84122b3828616c86f542c64c641b1673573bd84f03
Sticky	firmware-sticky-v1.7.1-rc.2.bin	6,017,728 bytes	fc1d2dd13393cf3f692866380ea92bb9050e4942d0f90b7ab4f517d15b7c75ac
X4 Pro recovery	firmware-recovery-x4-pro-v1.7.1-rc.2.bin	386,384 bytes	7001812f555efc35a080713e1de903e060b68d5a92abe1e6fef2535f122f9c5a

The recovery loader is not a replacement for the normal X4 Pro application
image. It is intended only for the factory-compatible recovery layout described
in X4 Pro reliability.