H700 port 09 Roadmap

09 — Release Roadmap and Gates

This document owns the H700 release lifecycle: what each stage proves, which tests gate promotion, and what is deferred or optional. Test results are not repeated here; every test ID points to the canonical report in 08-testing-status. Per-core detail remains in 10-core-game-matrix.

Current position

Alpha 1–3, Beta (h700-beta1), and RC1–RC8 are complete. h700-rc8 is the golden master about to be opened as the PR for official merge upstream.

RC8 was not a feature delta over RC7: it is a rebuild that rebased the H700 port onto the exact upstream commit used by NextUI v6.14.0, deliberately excluding a later RetroAchievements-related change that prevented many achievements from triggering. minarch was rebuilt on that base; the H700 platform work itself is otherwise the same lineage as RC7.

Remaining work for this document is gate/evidence hygiene for the merge PR (open rows in 08, any unsettled RC/Release checklist items), not further Alpha/Beta bring-up.

Stage roadmap

The Alpha rows normalize the completed bring-up history into clear stage scopes; use these definitions when reading older alpha artifacts and commit notes.

Stage	Purpose and issue focus	Required test areas	Status / exit
Alpha 1 — platform bring-up	Prove stock-card boot, basic display/input/audio, WiFi, and playable cores on the RG40XXV baseline	BUILD-01, BOOT-01, BOOT-02, DISP-01, INPUT-01, AUDIO-01, AUDIO-02, NET-01, GAME-01	✅ Complete
Alpha 2 — family expansion	Fix sleep/Files/UI regressions and prove real hardware deltas: RG34XXSP panel/lid/sticks, RG28XX rotation, Bootlogo sizes, and shared capability gating	POWER-01, POWER-03, APP-01, DISP-02, DISP-03, DISP-04, DISP-05, DISP-06, DISP-07, INPUT-02, INPUT-03, DEV-02, DEV-03, DEV-05, DEV-06, DEV-07	✅ Complete
Alpha 3 — Beta hardening	Close feature gaps and ambiguous policies: HDMI, Bluetooth controller/audio, screenshots, headphone route, MD Auto CPU, PS1 packaging, and representative core smoke	DISP-08, INPUT-05, AUDIO-03, AUDIO-04, AUDIO-05, GAME-03, GAME-04, GAME-06, PERF-04	✅ Complete; partial long-tail rows are classified below
Beta — public validation	Publish the supported H700 family build, collect broader device/firmware evidence, and fix any new critical regression	Beta entry gates below	✅ Complete (h700-beta1)
RC — release qualification	Freeze scope, close recovery checks, validate the packaged candidate, and accept or fix all Beta findings	RC entry gates below	✅ Complete through h700-rc8 (GM)
Release — supported baseline	Promote an RC with no open release blocker and with support/known-issue documentation matching behavior	Release gates below	✅ Release gates satisfied for h700-rc8; open the upstream merge PR

Beta entry gates

All required rows must pass on the Beta artifact. Family-level evidence is sufficient unless the code or hardware differs.

Gate	Required tests	Current disposition
Candidate build integrity	BUILD-01, BUILD-02, BUILD-03, BUILD-04	Satisfied on h700-rc8; BUILD-02 notes a tg5040 LedControl persistence report (#23)
Boot and shared runtime	BOOT-01, BOOT-02, DISP-01, INPUT-01, AUDIO-01, AUDIO-02, NET-01, GAME-01	Satisfied
Power and resume	POWER-01, POWER-02	Satisfied
Hardware deltas	DEV-01, DEV-02, DEV-03, DEV-04	Satisfied (DEV-04 user-confirmed on cube)
HDMI	DISP-08, AUDIO-05	Satisfied
Bluetooth audio	AUDIO-04	Satisfied
Core/performance baseline	GAME-02, GAME-03, GAME-04, PERF-01, PERF-04	Satisfied
Auto CPU full range	PERF-05	Satisfied

Beta planned work

Work	Priority / target	Completion condition
Auto governor full-range scaling	Was required for Beta	✅ PERF-05 passed on hardware
Per-model out-of-box defaults	Post-merge enhancement (not a h700-rc8 merge blocker)	Ship tested H700-model profiles covering shader choice, emulator/core options, and relevant frontend defaults so each model starts with sensible settings

The per-model profiles remain an intentional H700-specific departure from NextUI's otherwise barebones cross-platform defaults. Keep the overrides narrow, documented, and tested so they improve first-run behavior without silently changing other platforms. They are not required to open or merge the upstream PR.

Beta does not require every device or long-tail core to be tested. A new Beta finding becomes a Beta blocker only when it causes data loss, prevents boot/gameplay on the supported baseline, breaks a promised feature, or shows that family-level evidence does not generalize.

RC entry gates

Gate	Exit condition
Beta blocker closure	Every critical/high-impact Beta regression is fixed, or the affected feature/model is explicitly removed from RC scope
Recovery	—
Packaged build	BUILD-01, BUILD-02, BUILD-03, BUILD-04 pass on the RC artifact
Regression smoke	BOOT-01, GAME-01, GAME-04, POWER-01, POWER-02, NET-02, and AUDIO-02, AUDIO-04 are rerun on a representative H700 device
Hardware-change targeting	Re-run the relevant DEV/INPUT/DISP row only when Beta changes touch that hardware delta
Documentation	Install prerequisites, supported models, and accepted issues below match the RC behavior

Release gates

Gate	Exit condition	Disposition (h700-rc8)
RC soak	No unresolved boot, suspend/resume, audio-route, save-state, or data-integrity regression is found during RC use	✅ Satisfied
Final artifact	BUILD-01, BUILD-02, BUILD-03, BUILD-04, and the RC regression smoke pass on the exact release package	✅ Satisfied on h700-rc8. AUDIO-04 remains Pass; one report of no automatic BT re-pair after sleep/wake is expected-not-to-work and filed for triage (#20)
Known issues	Every accepted partial/failing row is documented with user impact and workaround where one exists	✅ Documented. Includes accepted known bug LED-01b (dual-bank left LED; no maintainer test device — upstream merge call). Other non-blockers: INPUT-06, GAME-05, GAME-06, #20, #23
Support boundary	Supported family behavior, hardware-specific exceptions, firmware prerequisites, and out-of-scope features are explicit	✅ Satisfied as the docs stand (README install/theme notes, accepted non-gates, stretch/out-of-scope, and 08/10 known partials)
Rollback	The one-file dmenu.bin removal path and old-style-theme prerequisite are present in release instructions	✅ Satisfied (skeleton/BASE/README.txt)

Accepted behavior and non-gates

These are settled decisions, not unfinished stage work.

Item	Test evidence	Decision
AirPods do not always auto-connect	AUDIO-04	AirPods may prefer a nearby paired iPhone/Mac. Remembered pairing plus manual Connect is the supported path
No automatic BT audio re-pair after sleep/wake	AUDIO-04 / #20	Not a supported promise; manual Connect remains the path. Filed for triage, not a h700-rc8 Release blocker
RG34XXSP POWER while lid is closed	POWER-03	Light sleep may wake; deep sleep re-sleeps while the lid remains closed
Charging permits light sleep only	POWER-04	Shared product behavior is accepted
FBNeo missing-BIOS hard-lock	GAME-05	Upstream core defect; ship as a known issue. Valid-BIOS gameplay passes
Long-tail EXTRAS core smoke incomplete	GAME-06	Maintainer covered A2600 / mGBA / SMS / Pico-8; remaining systems in 10 stay untested by the maintainer with no specific user bug reports — known, not a merge blocker
Two-bank RGB left stick dead	LED-01b	Accepted known bug for the h700-rc8 PR: dual-bank models report only the right LED changeable. Maintainer has no dual-bank test device. Upstream may merge with this open or wait for a fix; not silently treated as Pass
Clean uninstall exercise	BOOT-04	Not a runtime gate; deleting the only hijack file restores stock boot by design
Stock MU-style theme	BOOT-05	Install prerequisite: use old style. MU style bypasses NextUI before its code runs
Full matrix on every H700 model	Test rules	Not required without a hardware/firmware delta or contrary evidence
FN1/FN2/HOME and keep-awake-over-USB	CAP-01, CAP-02	Unsupported RG XX/Brick-specific capabilities; not release promises
Crash-loop cutoff exercise	BOOT-03	Guard exists in the launcher; inducing the five-crash poweroff path is not a Release blocker for h700-rc8
Stock-launcher SIGUSR1 resilience	ROBUST-01	Shim ignores USR1 by design; untested end to end and not a Release blocker for h700-rc8
Dirty-card recovery exercise	ROBUST-02	Boot fsck/repair path exists; untested end to end and not a Release blocker for h700-rc8

Deferred from Beta to RC

All former recovery deferrals (BOOT-03, ROBUST-01, ROBUST-02) and the cross-platform build check (BUILD-02) are resolved for h700-rc8: BUILD-02 passed; the recovery rows are accepted non-gates. See Accepted behavior and non-gates.

Future hardening

These improve confidence or breadth but do not gate the current release unless new evidence turns one into a supported-baseline defect.

Work	Evidence / next result needed
Battery UI consistency	Reproduce the top-bar versus Battery-pak desynchronization noted in POWER-05
Bluetooth soak	Longer suspend/resume, device-switch, and game-switch cycles beyond the passing AUDIO-04 path; triage #20 (no auto re-pair after sleep)
Controller normalization	Fix and retest INPUT-06 across tg5040/tg5050/H700
TrimUI LedControl persistence	BUILD-02 / #23 — settings do not stick on tg5040 with the shared h700-rc8 lineage; not an H700 LED failure
Bluetooth audio-link detection	Distinguish A2DP from controller-only ACL links before applying sample-rate policy
Long-tail core coverage	Expand GAME-06 and the matrix in 10 — known incomplete, not a merge blocker
RGcubexx deeper functional/core walk	DEV-04 UI/10-row layout is Pass; optional broader core coverage on cube remains post-merge
Two-bank LED bank order	LED-01b — accepted known bug (left LED unchangeable on dual-bank reports); fix when a dual-bank device is available or a remote repro lands. Upstream may hold the merge on this
Additional model strings	Confirm remaining RG35XX-family RGXX_MODEL values on hardware (RG40xxH / RGSP / etc. already confirmed from firmware)

Enhancements

Enhancement	Scope
H700 overlay packs	Ship useful overlays for 640×480, 720×480, and 720×720 logical output. Target Beta if tested packs are ready; otherwise ship after Release. This is not a Beta gate because the rendering pipeline already passes DISP-05
Per-panel DisplayCal defaults	Partly done: RG28XX, RG34XXSP, RG SP, and RG40XXV ship calibrated enabled presets. Remaining H700 models stay neutral until measured
Headphone UI	Optional HP icon and independent headphone volume; hardware routing already passes AUDIO-03
Richer battery metrics	Add voltage, charge-counter, and time-to-empty data to the battery model
Broader per-game tuning	Extend the planned post-merge per-model defaults only where a core or title demonstrably needs a narrower override
Per-model out-of-box defaults	Post-merge: shader / emulator / frontend defaults per H700 model (not a h700-rc8 merge blocker)
720×480 Files density	Evaluate PPU 3; PPU 2 already passes APP-01

Stretch goals and out-of-scope work

Item	Classification
Broader HDMI EDID/display compatibility	Stretch: fixed-mode HDMI already passes; add fallback modes when real displays require them
Panel-Fix tool	Stretch feature
Jammy-matched libasound / richer H700 sysroot	Optional: SDL2 already prebaked; BlueZ not in image
Pak Store	Separate product scope; NET-04 is not exercised for this port
OTA updates	Separate product scope; NET-05 is not exercised for this port

Next actions

1. Open the upstream merge PR from the h700-rc8 golden master (rebased on the NextUI v6.14.0 commit so RetroAchievements behave correctly).
2. Keep post-merge follow-ups in Future hardening / Enhancements (per-model defaults, long-tail cores, #20, #23, remaining LED fleet gaps).
3. After merge, promote documentation and tags to the published Release baseline.