# FABRIC-3.md — bare metal boot

**Status:** Living working document, opened 2026-09-04 as the successor to `FABRIC-2.md`
(now closed/archival — see its own header). Topic for this document, per direct instruction:
**bare metal boot** — getting LithosAnanke to actually boot on real hardware, not just QEMU.
`FABRIC-2.md` §I.6 (Milestone 8) already named this as the one item that pass couldn't close
from a coding session at all, for exactly this reason — it needs a real machine and a human
physically present. This document is where that work, and everything downstream of it, gets
tracked.

**How to use this document going forward.** New findings, new punch-list items, and new
decisions for bare-metal-boot work get added here, not to `FABRIC-2.md`. Same discipline every
prior document in this series used: write the decision and its reasoning down before building,
close items with a dated note citing real evidence, never silently drop a stale claim.

---

## I.1 — Task 1: merge `v2.0.1` into `master`, verify build/function equivalence

**Written up before executing**, per direct instruction and this series' own standing
discipline.

**Why this is task 1.** `FABRIC-2.md`'s entire 7-step closure pass (§I.1–§I.5, §I.7, plus
today's FABRIC-series rename) happened on the `v2.0.1` branch, not `master`. Before any real
bare-metal-boot work starts, that work needs to land where `.claude/CLAUDE.md` says the
project's sole production line actually lives: `master`. Doing this first, cleanly, before
starting new work avoids ever having two divergent lines to reconcile later.

**Investigated before writing this up, not assumed:**
- `git merge-base --is-ancestor master v2.0.1` — **true**. `master` (local HEAD `d2a0305`) is
  a strict ancestor of `v2.0.1` (HEAD `b031b80`) — `v2.0.1` is exactly `master` plus 47 commits
  forward, no divergent history on either side. This means the "merge" is a pure **fast-forward**,
  not a real three-way merge — nothing to resolve, no conflict possible.
- `origin/master` carries exactly one commit beyond local `master` (`58c59e8`, "Initial
  commit") that local `master` hadn't fetched yet — confirmed already contained in `v2.0.1`'s
  own history (`git merge-base --is-ancestor 58c59e8 v2.0.1` — true), so it introduces no
  discrepancy either.
- `master`'s own tree still has the *old* `FABRIC.md`/`FABRIC-2.md`/`FABRIC-3.md` naming
  (unrenamed) — expected, since today's rename commit (`b031b80`) only exists on `v2.0.1` so
  far. The fast-forward brings the rename to `master` along with everything else; nothing
  separate needs doing for it.

**Plan:**
1. Fast-forward `master` to `v2.0.1`'s tip (`git checkout master && git merge --ff-only v2.0.1`)
   — refuses loudly instead of silently doing a real merge if the ancestor relationship somehow
   isn't what the investigation above found, so this step re-verifies its own precondition.
2. Push `master` to `origin`.
3. **Verify build/function equivalence on a genuinely clean tree**, not by inference: `git clean`
   (after confirming nothing untracked-but-wanted is present), then the full acceptance sequence
   `.claude/CLAUDE.md` already mandates for any kernel change — `clean qemu` on all three
   architectures, in the foreground, one at a time, each reaching `ok>` and shutting down
   cleanly. Since the tree is byte-identical to `v2.0.1`'s post-fast-forward, this is expected
   to reproduce exactly what `v2.0.1`'s own last acceptance pass already showed — the point of
   re-running it here is to confirm that expectation holds on `master` itself, not to assume it
   from the fast-forward alone.
4. Return to `v2.0.1` as the working branch afterward (`.claude/CLAUDE.md`'s own rule: always
   return to the correct working branch after any out-of-branch work), unless told otherwise.

**DONE 2026-09-04, exactly as planned:**
1. Committed the write-up above on `v2.0.1` first (`72c14cb`), pushed. This became `v2.0.1`'s
   new tip.
2. `git checkout master && git merge --ff-only v2.0.1` — **Fast-forward**, `d2a0305..72c14cb`,
   confirming the investigated ancestor relationship held exactly as expected; no conflict, no
   merge commit.
3. `git push origin master` — `origin/master` moved `58c59e8..72c14cb`.
4. **Verified on a genuinely clean `master` tree**, not inferred from the fast-forward:
   - Hosted build (`make clean && make`): clean compile, zero warnings, same as `v2.0.1`.
   - Full 3-arch kernel acceptance (`clean qemu`, amd64/aarch64/riscv64, each in the foreground):
     all three reached `(zuse) ok>`/`ok>` and shut down cleanly, zero build errors, zero
     unexpected warnings — identical outcome to `v2.0.1`'s own last acceptance pass, confirmed
     directly rather than assumed. Logs: `logs/20260904-113208/amd64/`,
     `logs/20260904-113320/aarch64/`, `logs/20260904-113552/riscv64/`.
5. `master` and `v2.0.1` are now identical (`72c14cb` on both, `origin` and local). Returned to
   `v2.0.1` as the working branch per plan step 4.

**Task 1 closed.** `master` genuinely is the production line again, current through today's
FABRIC-series rename and the full `FABRIC-2.md` §I closure. Bare-metal-boot work (this
document's actual topic) starts from here.