v2 Appliance Roadmap — sequencing & gates (provisional)

[VijitSingh97]

Single source of truth for the v2 appliance plan — same format as #364. Provisional by design: this is the far-horizon epic tier; it re-sequences whenever the v1.x line ships something it depends on. The 2026-07 gap assessments on each issue list the open decisions.

The theme: v2 turns the stack from software you install into a machine you boot. A self-provisioning USB installer for the stack host and the RigForge miner (#77), on whichever container runtime the spike picks (#78), with the node halves optionally split into their own appliance repos (#105).

   #78  Podman/Quadlet spike ──► runtime verdict feeds everything downstream
                 │                (add the two post-#346 coupling checks from the gap comment)
                 ▼
   #77  bootable USB installers (the epic)
         phase 1 (Ubuntu autoinstall ISO + config.json pre-seed) is executable TODAY
         — decide: ship phase 1 wizard-less so it isn't blocked on v1.4's #33
         later phases: setup-window gate, secrets-on-USB, ISO build/signing pipeline
                 │
                 ▼
   #105  Monero/Tari node-starter appliance repos (parked until #77 proves the image tooling)

• Evaluate Podman + Quadlet as the container runtime for the immutable appliance (vs Docker Compose) #78 — Evaluate Podman + Quadlet vs Docker Compose for the immutable appliance. Best-specified issue in the tier; add the two coupling checks (host-network/loopback-published ports under pasta; tor_egress_firewall vs netavark) before running the spike.
• Bootable USB installers: self-provisioning appliance images for the stack host and RigForge miner #77 — Bootable USB installers (stack host + RigForge miner). Cross-repo with rigforge#1; images are x86_64-only (xmrig-proxy has no arm64 build) — the installer hard-fails on non-amd64. Wizard phase depends on v1.4's Stack config editor: change any setting from the dashboard, applied via pithead (incl. P2Pool mode hot-swap) #33; phase 1 need not.
• Far-off: appliance-style Monero (and Tari) node-starter repos for easy remote nodes #105 — Appliance-style Monero/Tari node-starter repos. Unpark only after Bootable USB installers: self-provisioning appliance images for the stack host and RigForge miner #77's image tooling exists; the exposure model should copy the shipped onion + client-auth pattern (Feature: optional Tor onion service for remote dashboard access — auth-gated, default off #343), not the old Secure Dashboard: authentication/login + safe public exposure (re-evaluate Caddy/TLS) #8 framing.

Release status — tier not open

Gates: #78 verdict · #77 phase-1 ISO boots a stack on real hardware from the gouda bench · the rest re-planned on what v1.4–v1.7 actually shipped.