-## Remaining promotion gates
-
-Before a release can be promoted:
-
-1. Build with the maintained Visual Studio 2019 32-bit toolchain.
-2. Run the MSVC fixture tests.
-3. Validate no-media reporting on a real drive.
-4. Validate a complete GameCube or Wii report.
-5. Validate a controlled partial cancellation.
-6. Validate Xbox assembled-output reporting on the applicable hardware path.
- The copied GDR-8050L reference dumper remains a special Windows-only path;
- complete output reporting must be validated there, and Ctrl+C cancellation
- must not be claimed for that path until its copied loops receive an explicit
- cancellation callback.
-7. Submit generated reports to the live v1.2.0 database and confirm acceptance.
-8. Review exact report contents before assigning a release tag.
+## Accepted validation basis
+
+The release campaign completed these gates:
+
+1. Maintained Visual Studio 2019 32-bit build and fixture execution.
+2. Linux/CMake build and raw-I/O authorization preflight.
+3. Real-drive no-media and controlled-partial reporting.
+4. Complete GameCube validation with an exact known-good image hash.
+5. Original Xbox GDR-8050L game-view, XDVDFS, DMI/media-ID, native-report,
+ controlled-cancellation, hashing, and STOP UNIT validation.
+6. Exact report review and compatibility-database acceptance.
+7. Candidate publication and exact fast-forward promotion to canonical `main`.
+
+The copied Windows challenge-drive loops retain their documented cancellation
+boundary. No broader cancellation claim is inferred from the portable Linux
+path.
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