ETK v0.9.0 — Official Chassis Edition

ETK v0.9.0 — Official Chassis Edition

The chassis is the part of the car everything else bolts to. This release bolts the kit to the official September ROCKNIX, the latest stable MESA Turnip 26.6.2 plus an upstream dev release candidate version like you find from forkers on Android, plus a new RPCS3 core that fuses developments from the ARMSX3 project. This is the first ETK release where the layers of the stack move on upstream's calendar.

Following the cadences

Since 0.8.6 the plan has been to meet the September chassis early rather than on race day. The rehearsal ran on the public nightly; the official ROCKNIX 20260901 landed on September 1st, and this cut runs on it: the GTK kernel (7.2.0, rocknix-gtk-20260901-0.5) rebuilt on the official tag, cold-boot certified on the reference rig, and the card image built on the official base. From here the kernel follows ROCKNIX's monthly.

The Vulkan driver follows Mesa's stable series the same way. Mesa Turnip 26.2.2 is the certified default, minted the day after upstream tagged it, and the DRIVER tab's catalog is now nine builds deep — every stable the kit has ever shipped, plus dated development snapshots straight off Mesa main for anyone who wants to run ahead. Nothing is ever removed from the catalog; a downgrade is one pick away, and the boot-stamped loaded driver is always the ground truth.

Two cadences, two policies: stables are certified and pinned; development builds are catalogued, named by their snapshot date, and never the default.

The emulator: ARMSX3 fused with upstream RPCS3

The core is RPCS3 GTK Edition 0.9.0.3, certified in 0.8.7 and unchanged here. Its base is ARMSX3, the ARM-first RPCS3 line, carried forward onto a current upstream RPCS3 base — the "leap-frog" that landed over the 0.8.6 cycle — with the GTK Edition's own nets on top: the fence and FIFO watchdogs of the anti-lock stack, the road-flicker fix for the five-year-open upstream bug, the texture-cache unlock net, and the cycle-reclaim dials found with the bog profiler. The build is stamped with its own identity, and the session ledger reads that stamp on every row, so an A/B between cores is always attributable. Every one of those nets is a runtime flag with a kill-switch — the kit ships them on, and the DRIVER and TUNING tabs let you turn any of them off without a rebuild.

Toward the whole PS3 library

The Gran Turismo series is still the yardstick, but the kit is no longer only a GT tool. Two things in this cut are about the titles that are not GT:

• The shipped tunes now apply. The kit has bundled a settled per-title tune for every game the reference rig has worked through — 45 of them at this cut — and until now a fresh install never used them. A title that has a shipped tune now starts on it; titles without one still get the safe generic starter; a config you already have is never touched. What the rig learned about a title is what your rig starts with.
• The shipped dial. A fresh card used to run the driver on stock defaults. It now runs the dial the rig races on (zlatez, the DRIVER tab's Max Stability stop), and the first session is ledgered under it, so your very first row is comparable to ours.

Title support is emergent: it arrives one settled tune at a time, and the ledger tells you which ones are there.

Why ROCKNIX-GTK on a handheld that also boots Android

The same SM8250 handheld runs Android, and the kit's own Android forks exist. This is the boot that gets the edge, and the reasons are the flagship features:

• Anti-lock. A GPU wedge on stock Linux is a silent freeze. The GTK stack catches it at every layer — kernel context keepalive, driver query survival, emulator fence and FIFO watchdogs — and keeps the race running; the HUD's ANTI-LOCK gauge shows each rescue as it happens. Android gets a similar safety from its own graphics layer; here it runs on bare-metal Linux with the performance headroom that brings.
• The DDU HUD. Temperature, frametime jitter, shader-compile slip and the rescue counter as fixed-width gauges over the game, native to the stack, not an overlay app.
• The shader vault. Per-game shader banks that survive driver updates and reboots, so a title that was smooth stays smooth.
• Pitstop. The on-device app: TUNING for the emulator, DRIVER for the Vulkan catalog and dials, POWER for governor and big.LITTLE rungs, TOOLS for installs and updates — with a game switcher and an install beacon that announces every install on the handheld's own screen.
• The black box and the ledger. Every session is a row with its stack fingerprint, dial, and outcome; every panic leaves a flight recording. Claims in this kit trace back to that ledger, and so can yours.

A note on honesty

Mid-cycle a host-side config error switched the kernel half of the anti-lock net off for about a day of sessions on the reference rig, and a large part of its shader vault was cleared, so the ledger for that window reads noisier than the rig felt. This release is certified on the operator's verdict — more performant, no regression found — with that window discounted rather than crowned. Two sessions on one title ended in a silent reset with nothing in the kernel log; that class is tracked and the black box is armed for the next one.

Installing and updating

• Fresh card: flash ROCKNIX-GTK-SM8250.aarch64-20260901.img.gz, boot twice (the first boot grows the storage partition and reboots). The card carries the whole stack, the full driver catalog, the shipped tunes and dial, and the notification style — no host needed.
• Existing rig: Pitstop → TOOLS → Check for ETK Updates, or the one-liner install from a host. Per-game pins, saved tunes and the shader vault carry over untouched. First launch after a driver or core update recompiles shaders.
• Windows host: the PowerShell installer ships the same stack and announces itself on the rig the same way.

Certified stack: RPCS3 GTK Edition 0.9.0.3 · Mesa Turnip 26.2.2 gtk_0.7 · kernel rocknix-gtk-20260901-0.5 (7.2.0) · base ROCKNIX official 20260901.

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ETK Big Changelog — v0.8.0 → 0.9.0

Every change across the kit between v0.8.0 (2026-07-22) and the pending 0.9.0,
grouped by ETK release tag. 0.9.0 (2026-09-03) is the cut this document
closes on; 0.8.7 shipped 2026-08-31. Sibling-repo work is filed under the ETK release window it
landed in; CHANGELOG.md remains the canonical per-release record.

Releases: v0.8.1 (07-27) · v0.8.2 (07-30) · v0.8.3 (08-01) · v0.8.4 (08-07) ·
v0.8.5 (08-10) · v0.8.6 (08-28) · v0.8.7 (08-31) · v0.9.0 (09-03)

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🐧 Kernel & Boot

GTK changes (rocknix-gtk)

• v0.8.3 — build_712: 7.1.2 kernel lane on ROCKNIX 20260801 base; ships as 20260801-0.3
• v0.8.4 — kernel 20260801-0.3.1: same source, re-minted on etk-cloud
• v0.8.5 — gcc-15 compiler law enforced by the build, not just documented
• v0.8.5 — DP hotplug repro harness: state probe, edge trace, plug protocol
• v0.8.5 — patches #3–#7: Type-C debounce/mux/redriver + DP enable-lock + dpu encoder; phantom-cable and DP-hotplug wedges closed
• v0.8.5 — 0.4 series built and validated (boot A/B, in-game DP hotplug both ways); -0.4.1 promoted daily driver, ships as 20260801-0.4.1
• v0.8.6 — 20260901 upstream survey + re-survey: it's a 7.2 rebase; patches-7.2/ staged (6 carry; DP enable-lock retired upstream; q6asm dropped)
• v0.8.6 — build_72 + stage_72: 7.2/20260901 kernel lane with loud staging gate; ships as 20260827-0.5, validated live
• 0.8.7 — stage_72/build_72: stderr logging + recursive firmware count; staging-gate false-WARN/false-fail fixes
• v0.9.0 — kernel 20260901-0.5: 7.2.0 rebuilt on the OFFICIAL ROCKNIX 20260901 tag (delta vs the surveyed nightly touched nothing in kernel/boot/dts); cold-boot certified; card base moves to 20260901

ROCKNIX team changes (upstream, surveyed for the 7.2 rebase — not merged)

• sm8250: bumped to mainline kernel 7.2 (PR #3209)
• sm8250: gpu improvements — 305→925 MHz OPP ladder, ACD, GPU→DDR bandwidth voting
• kernel cmdline: gpt added (RP Mini V2 recovery fallout)
• 7.2 conf: LSUI enabled; READ_ONLY_THP_FOR_FS dropped; NETFILTER_NETLINK m→y
• firmware: regulatory.db + .p7s into EXTRA_FIRMWARE (wireless-regdb 2026.05.30)
• grub: generator rework — abl_dev block overrides saved_entry post-load_env
• rocknix-abl: 1.1.6 → 1.1.8 (reaches rigs only by manual reflash)

🎮 Emulators & Frontend

GTK changes (etk-rpcs3-gtk; core versioning is the fork's own, not ETK's)

• v0.8.3 — core 0.8.0-dev: base bump 19544 → 19638 (a1deb2921); PPU obj-cache v7→v8
• v0.8.3 — core 0.8.1 certified: reverts upstream SPU reduced-loop skip (GT5P Spec II boot fatal)
• v0.8.4 — core 0.8.2-dev: LLVM 22.1.8 toolchain rebuild, identical source
• v0.8.4 — core 0.8.3-dev: optnone on spu_thread::stop_and_signal (Spec II clang-22 miscompile mask)
• v0.8.4 — core 0.8.4-dev: GTK_PROBE_11912 TIU probe restored; verify-markers.sh 13-marker gate
• v0.8.4 — core 0.8.5 certified: noinline barrier replaces optnone; full LLVM-22 gains
• v0.8.6 — core 0.8.5-dev: TEXCACHE-UNLOCK net (SSX texture-cache race)
• v0.8.6 — leap-frog: base RPCS3 a1deb2921 → ARMSX3 f707458b0; 0.9.0-mint1 baseline + leapfrog-v1 cumulative (32 files, +1344/−87)
• v0.8.6 — Linux build fixes 0004–0006: Oboe gated Android-only; fcntl.h; X11 CWX vs SPU opcode
• v0.8.6 — CI LLVM image bakes the ARMSX3 AArch64 GHC emergency-spill patch
• v0.8.6 — core 0.9.0 GA cut; certified 08-20 (N=3 GT5P gate, 13/13 markers), rolled back to 0.8.5 on 08-27
• v0.8.6 — core 0.9.0.1-dev: leap-frog set rebased onto ARMSX3 a74a0f3e0; fixes 0008–0010 (LSFG gated, config members, capture stub)
• v0.8.6 — EXP-maskoff probe: 0.9.0.1 minus the optnone stop_and_signal mask
• 0.8.7 — core 0.9.0.2: optnone mask retired, EXP-maskoff promoted (~23 vs 20 fps)
• 0.8.7 — patches: overlay-coalesce-notice — dedupe fence rescue-notice overlay (Asahi-surfaced)
• 0.8.7 — Asahi/M1 (Honeykrisp) validation lane: 0.8.4+overlayfix stack on RPCS3 19895

ARMSX3 changes (upstream base)

• f707458b0: 484 commits over old base; mobile-profile gates (ETK widens via ETK_CONSTRAINED_HOST); eight new tunables surfaced
• a74a0f3e0: LSFG FrameGen port + SGSR upscaler; driver pipeline cache default-ON (ETK ships it OFF)

RPCS3 changes (upstream, arrived via base bumps)

• 19544 → 19638: rsxfp/rsxvp interpreter fix series; LIT re-implemented; vk/gl MSAA + D24S8 flattening; LLVM 22.1.8
• via leap-frog: unpkg OOB fixes; 3D-texture mipmap fixes; PPU ARM64 saturation fix; SPU SELB/SHUFB fixes; ROP_OUTPUT_REMAP
• via a74a0f3e0: tolerant ISO short-read (supersedes GTK patch 0001); reservation notify-after-store (root-fixes the bug optnone masked)

🖥️ Graphics

Mesa Turnip stable (etk-turnip-gtk)

• v0.8.3 — stable rebase 26.1.3 → 26.1.6; 26.1 backports (D32S8 EARLY_Z_LATE_Z hang wa, tile-division fix)
• v0.8.3 — zlatez: A650 workaround widened past D32S8 to Z24S8; QUERY_SURVIVE default ON; ETK-GTK driverInfo stamp
• v0.8.3 — certified pin 26.1.3_gtk_0.4 → 26.1.6_gtk_0.6 (26.1.3 kept as fallback)
• v0.8.4 — gear registration decoupled into tu_etk_gears.h; shipped bit collision fixed
• v0.8.4 — gtk_0.7 re-mints on etk-cloud replace gtk_0.6; certified 26.1.6_gtk_0.7
• v0.8.5 — stable rebase 26.1.6 → 26.2.0 (26.1 backports now native); certified 26.2.0_gtk_0.7
• v0.8.5 — catalog policy set: Turnip is CUMULATIVE — every listed build stays fetchable
• v0.8.6 — stable bump 26.2.0 → 26.2.1 (repo-side; 26.2.0_gtk_0.7 remains the shipping pin); 26.1 series EOL, 26.1.6 frozen fallback
• v0.8.7 — 26.2.1 catalogued (7 entries); certified pin still 26.2.0_gtk_0.7
• v0.9.0 — 26.2.2 minted + catalogued (9 entries); certified default advances to 26.2.2_gtk_0.7 (operator verdict; the rig's daily driver since 09-02)

Mesa Turnip dev

• v0.8.3 — pre-release track added: 26.2.0-rc3; enters the DRIVER catalog as rc3_gtk_0.6 (unvalidated, operator-directed)
• v0.8.4 — devel pinnable to any 40-hex sha ("main is a position, not a version"); rc3 track retired for sha-pinned 26.3.0-devel
• v0.8.5 — 26.3.0-devel-e40d93a_gtk_0.7 enters the catalog as the pre-release slot
• v0.8.5 — ANDROID (bionic/kgsl) lane: build_android.sh + container provisioning; stock-Mesa adpkg reconstruction, sha-pin gates
• v0.8.6 — devel re-pinned main@d2e56df; 26.3.0-rc1 lane pre-wired (upstream due 2026-10-14)
• v0.8.7 — devel 20260821-d2e56df catalogued under the dated naming scheme
• v0.9.0 — devel re-pinned main@c0682c5 (dated 20260902, 5/8 series — no dsbypass/dsany); forge gate accepts dated devel names

🔊 Audio

GTK changes

• v0.8.5 — kernel patch #8 q6asm 24-bit word-size: WITHDRAWN — deterministic DP AFE −110 on -0.4.2
• v0.8.5 — reverse-orientation ladder: seven builds, software stack exonerated; vendor redriver bus stays dark (Android confirms hardware path)
• v0.8.5 — DP capture sink pinned S16_LE (was S24_LE, ~25 dB loss); ETK_DP_AUDIO_S16=0

ROCKNIX changes

• q6afe silent-boot race independently root-caused upstream via audio-as-modules
• wireplumber: device-config existence guard (cosmetic)

🔧 System

GTK changes

• v0.8.6 — wdt-bark branch: watchdog pretimeout governors, bark→panic, dark until armed (held off main pending cold-boot validation)
• v0.8.6 — 7.2 migration route: the built-in updater; staged-tar path retired

ROCKNIX changes

• LibreELEC master merge: glibc 2.44, Python 3.13.5 → 3.14.7
• ffmpeg pinned 7.1.1 (libavcodec soname stays 61); Mesa project override → 26.1.6
• rpcs3-sa: natively source-built; set_kill "-9 rpcs3-sa"
• MangoHud pinned v0.8.4; fake-suspend: DPMS off by default + suspend-action fix

🔩 Other

GTK changes

• v0.8.4/v0.8.5 — build containers provisioned from repo (kernel + Turnip lanes); CLAUDE.md bootstraps point at ~/etk
• v0.8.6 — UPSTREAM_20260901.md: full upstream survey + re-survey for the 7.2 chassis

ROCKNIX changes

• EmulationStation bump + GLES3
• apps: package refactor; mako-notify, sdl2text plumbing
• unchanged: InputPlumber v0.75.2, BusyBox 1.36.1 (get_setting [] bug persists)

🏁 ETK Middleware

v0.8.1

• install: headless --installpkg PKG installer replaces on-screen dialog + folder-watch
• install: storage root set up before RPCS3 first-runs; strands moved to games card
• paddock PUSH: save_aliases.tsv resolves foreign-title-id save folders
• paddock PULL: silent shader truncation fixed; restores over empty saves with .paddock.bak; honest summary
• pad auto-bind: SDL device name written into RPCS3 pad config (ETK_PAD_BIND=0)
• licences: all staged .rap installed, not just the first; uninstall clears both storage roots
• changelog: [0.8.0] backfilled into the repo file

v0.8.2

• chiaki: new Tier P Remote Play lane — mercurious/chiaki-rocknix fork, build, deploy, ES menu entry
• chiaki: DualSense haptics-audio → rumble; trigger deadzone with rescale (Flip 2 L2 rests 12/255)
• chiaki: console wake-on-connect, rest-mode clean exit, dead-session self-heal; ETK_CHIAKI=0; uninstall in lockstep
• modules: etk_modules_inject.py becomes an N-app table registrar; Sentry re-asserts entries after boot wipe
• notify: etk_chiaki_notify.sh replace-in-place mako toasts, reusable by any lane

v0.8.3

• update: full-stack self-update — gtk_stack.json manifest + kernel_stage.sh; kernel is the fifth release asset
• osguard: OS-update coherence guard daemon — mismatch heal, sha-verified promotion, grubenv re-point; ETK_OS_GUARD=0
• gates: release_sanity asserts manifest↔install.sh lockstep; test_osguard 29/29 + test_kernel_stage 18/18, host + BusyBox
• catalog: certified allowlist relaxed — drivers/ IS the catalog
• telemetry: tune_tag attributes the whole stack; blackbox self-relink guard

v0.8.4

• forge: every binary minted on etk-cloud (Oracle Ampere A1) from in-git recipes, verified against the artifact replaced
• gates: release_sanity probes pinned-artifact existence — a pinned unpublished Turnip had shipped stock
• boot-identity unit templated from APP_VERSION (was frozen 0.7.0); image-lane stale defaults fixed
• notify: ES's two surfaces adopted (verdict toast + progress card); etk_notify.sh replaces four dbus-send copies; mako config idempotent with rollback
• installs: background out-of-process worker + queue; stand-down when a game launches; ETK_BG_INSTALL=0
• installs: .rap queue-field fix; PID-scoped timeout cleanup (no more pkill of a running game); postmortem rollup ordering
• telemetry: sentry tells installer RPCS3 from game RPCS3 by argv; postmortem archives RPCS3.log, stops SHM inheritance
• dyno: --audio skip/s ranking with retroactive SHM-contamination filter
• gates: test_install_queue.py (11 cases, BusyBox) + test_notify.py

v0.8.5

• forge.sh: etk-cloud build conductor — six lanes, detached builds, fingerprint skip, Pit Wall TUI
• image: gates manifest-vs-inputs, middleware version, baked kernel; bakes the WHOLE Turnip catalog (one-entry chooser fixed)
• gates: every pin compared to staged file + forge sidecar; DRIVER pin checked; sync_game_configs.sh freshness (24/41 had drifted)
• charts: chart_library.py committed — PLAYABLE filter, quit-hang stripe, fps + jitter, endings; wiki generators
• ledger: 39.7-year phantom session routed to the honest-unknown path
• input: pad self-heal on DP unplug; ETK_DP_MIRROR=0 made real
• windows: PowerShell port re-synced; cert pins gated in lockstep (had drifted two releases)
• SECURITY.md added; golden tune adopted as a safe start, not a tune

v0.8.6

• boot: numeric boot-default pin (STEP 6.4 + image lane); abl_dev counter + gpt cmdline mirror; stock boot-config convergence
• boot: 4Kn law for internal-disk images; fastboot flash ROCKNIX documented as the recovery rung
• osguard: ordering fix — the guard raced its own mount and silently never ran
• blackbox: resource flight recorder, the silent-death witness (After= the sd-rebind mount)
• spotter: ADRENO-NOFAULT detector; log-fatal precision; SILENT counter no longer corpse-seeded
• cockpit: corpse-grab freeze forensics; paddock: preflight auth + loud failures
• deploy: stock-nuke class closed — no silent downgrade, cert pins must have sources, the bind states its verdict
• gates: core cap counts SHIPPING builds; EXP-* probes exempt and loudly NOTEd
• config: 14 dead keys removed from all 42 masters, zero behavior change
• docs: TRACK_MANUAL v1.0 on the A/B/C modality spine; AI_MANIFEST tombstoned

0.8.7 (pending)

• beacon: install.sh drives an on-rig "ETK INSTALL" progress card — percent + stage, explicit verdict, always on, fail-soft
• beacon: the PowerShell port drives the same card and verdicts; release_sanity gates the port's roster
• gates: test_notify.py [BEACON] suite — mutation-tested
• kernel deploy: KERNEL_DEPLOY_MODE fallback test → default; auto-boot withheld unless verified Flip 2 + module tree present
• self-update: reconciles shipped systemd unit changes; osguard Phase B re-applies the numeric default pin
• uninstall: per-game dev_hdd1 cache no longer leaks

🛞 ETK Pitstop

v0.8.1

• install stays in-app: spinner, up-front size, size-scaled timeout

v0.8.2

• chiaki UI: title screen, console chooser, pairing wizard (8-digit PIN + PSN-id keyboard)
• in-stream chords: R1+L3 flips 1080p/720p, L1+R3 flips h265/h264, reconnect in place; input_d stands down during a stream

v0.8.3

• DRIVER: zlatez gears registered, dimlog surfaced as a diagnostic row
• chiaki: connection status screen; BITRATE row (auto/low/medium/high per console); real Flip 2 button hints

v0.8.4

• installs queue in the background; ES rescan on finish; one honest stand-down message
• TUNING → CORE: per-title emulator core swap (ETK_CORE_SWAP=0)
• TUNING → PATCH: community patch toggles over RPCS3's patch_config.yml (ETK_PATCH_FETCH=0)
• TUNING: PPU/SPU decoder + sleep-timers-accuracy fields; non-selectable section headers

v0.8.5

• screenshot chord L1 → L1+L2, hysteresis-gated; HUD punchbox needs a 0.4 s hold
• L1+R3 recovery deliberately untouched — fires on press, asserted by the suite
• TOOLS: Bog Sampler toggle; test_chords.py synthetic-evdev regression suite

v0.8.6

• TUNING: eight new dials from the 0.9.0 core review; duplicate Shader Precision dial dropped; Resolution fix restored
• TUNING: RR7 FIFO fetch-accuracy/reordering dials retired (falsified on rig 08-21)

0.8.7 (pending)

• GAME SWITCHER (hold SELECT): re-point Pitstop at any installed game, full in-place restart; refuses mid-game and pre-ledger-stamp; stick-probe rollback; test_game_switcher.py
• TOOLS entry 0 rebuilt as "Manage Shaders & Caches": both cache roots, real per-game dirs, refuse-while-running, honest PARTLY CLEARED, banked vault never touched
• TOOLS geometry: menu windowed in the body band, [GEOM] strict at every size; footer-anchor fix; AppleDouble ._*.psn siblings skipped

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Corrections surfaced while compiling (vs CHANGELOG.md)

1. CHANGELOG.md had lost its ## [0.8.5] header at the 0.8.6 cut — the 0.8.5 body sat inside the [0.8.6] section. Restored byte-identical to the v0.8.5 tag in 3921b2f.
2. The 0.8.5 notes said Turnip was unchanged; gtk_stack.json at the v0.8.5 tag certifies 26.2.0_gtk_0.7, and 26.3.0-devel joined the catalog. Filed under v0.8.5 above; the 0.8.5 Stack block corrected 2026-08-31.
3. The 0.8.6 "pins deliberately unchanged" claim hid that RPCS3 core 0.9.0 was certified 08-20 and rolled back 08-27, and the shipped 0.8.5 sha changed. The 0.8.6 Changed block corrected 2026-08-31.

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Full changelog

[0.9.0] - 2026-09-03 — Official Chassis Edition

Certified stack: RPCS3 GTK Edition 0.9.0.3 · Mesa Turnip 26.2.2 gtk_0.7 ·
kernel rocknix-gtk-20260901-0.5 (7.2.0) · base ROCKNIX official 20260901.

The practice lap is over. 0.8.6 rehearsed the September chassis on a nightly;
this cut runs it on the official monthly the kernel was rebuilt against, moves
the certified Vulkan driver to the current Mesa stable, and ships the Turnip
dial the rig actually races on instead of leaving a fresh card at stock. A
note on honesty: mid-cycle a host-side config error switched the kernel half
of the anti-lock net off for about a day of sessions, and a large part of the
shader vault was cleared, so the ledger for this window reads noisier than
the rig felt. The release is certified on the operator's verdict — more
performant, no regression found — with the ledger discounted for that window
rather than crowned by it.

Added

• The shipped Turnip dial. A rig with no dial used to run the driver at
  "no barrier". The kit now ships its default (zlatez, the stop the
  DRIVER tab calls Max Stability) on the card and seeds it on a host install
  — only where no dial exists; a dial you set is never overwritten. The first
  session is ledgered under the dial it ran. Kill-switch
  ETK_TURNIP_DIAL_SEED=0.
• Shipped game tunes now apply. The kit has long bundled a per-title
  reference tune for every game the rig has settled, and a fresh install
  never used them — every new title got the generic starter config. A title
  with a shipped tune now starts on it; titles without one still get the
  starter; a config you already have is never touched. Kill-switch
  ETK_NOTEBOOK_SEED=0.
• Release identity gate. The release tooling refuses to push or prepare a
  cut under any GitHub login but the project's own.

Changed

• ROAD FEEL: Max Stability is now zlatez. The previous top stop,
  syncdraw, earned its "proven crash floor" on measurements from before the
  anti-lock net and the 7.2 chassis; zlatez works the fragment-stage depth
  hazard the fault decode points at and drew the fewest rescues in the field.
  syncdraw remains one Advanced toggle away.
• Game tunes ship current. The per-title reference tunes in config/
  match the rig's live notebook at the cut (four titles re-banked since
  0.8.7), and the card carries them.
• Reflash re-pairing is one password again: the pairing tool clears a
  rig's stale host keys after a reflash instead of failing on them.
• Forge naming gate accepts dated development driver names, so a
  development Turnip mint can no longer fail its own version-string check.

Fixed

• Install beacon invisible on a freshly flashed card. On a card that
  had never shown a system notification, every ETK toast — the install
  progress card, verdicts, the boot-time recovery instruction — was accepted
  by the notification daemon and drawn underneath the fullscreen front-end,
  because the daemon's stock style (which puts notifications on top) is only
  created the first time ROCKNIX itself shows one. The kit now seeds that
  stock style itself: before the very first beacon, in the style step, on the
  card image, and from the Windows installer. Rigs that already have the
  style are untouched.

Stack

• Kernel 20260901-0.5 — the 7.2.0 GTK kernel rebuilt on the official
  ROCKNIX 20260901 tag (the 0.8.6/0.8.7 kernel was built on the nightly it
  was cut from; the official delta touched nothing in the kernel, boot or
  device tree). Cold-boot certified on the rig. The card image is built on
  the official 20260901 base.
• Turnip certified default advances to Mesa 26.2.2 (gtk_0.7), the
  rig's daily driver since 2026-09-02; the catalog grows to nine (nothing
  removed): 26.2.2 and a 2026-09-02 development snapshot join. 26.2.0, the
  previous default, stays one DRIVER-tab pick away.
• RPCS3 GTK Edition 0.9.0.3 unchanged (certified in 0.8.7).

Known behaviour

• Two sessions on one title ended in a silent reset with nothing in the
  kernel log beforehand — the unexplained panic class already tracked; the
  black box records the lead-up for the next occurrence.
• A rig that already has a dial keeps it; to take the shipped default, pick
  Max Stability in the DRIVER tab.