docs(backlog): B-0832 — installer nmtui WiFi rescan/refresh (empirical from physical hardware-support test 2026-05-26; 20+ overlapping networks)

[AceHack]

Summary

First empirical UX feedback from operator's physical hardware-support test 2026-05-26 — validates B-0831's reframing of physical-test as first-class hardware-compatibility-matrix substrate.

Issue

Operator framing: "in the network manager i can refresh wifi connections if i don't see mine initially i have like 20 overlapping networks in my location so i was unable to select the one i wanted but moving foward but we need some sort of way to refresh thoughs?"

The installer's zeta-first-boot service auto-launches nmtui when no ethernet is detected. In dense-WiFi environments the initial scan may miss the target SSID; nmtui has no obvious rescan path.

3-layer mitigation (smallest first)

Approach	Scope	Code change
A	Documentation banner before nmtui launch (F5 rescan + Esc re-launch paths)	Banner text in zeta-first-boot.sh
B	Pre-scan + post-nmtui re-launch loop in zeta-first-boot.sh	Small loop addition
C	Bypass nmtui entirely; prompt-driven nmcli flow	Larger refactor; 0-human-typing-aligned

P2 priority — UX friction, not hard blocker (operator continued the test via "moving forward" workaround).

Empirical anchor — B-0831 validation

This row IS what B-0831 predicted: physical hardware-support test surfaces real-world issues that CI emulation cannot reproduce. QEMU has no concept of dense-WiFi channel-contention. The substrate-engineering value of physical-as-hardware-support-test is now empirically validated within one tick of B-0831 landing.

Test plan

• markdownlint clean
• BACKLOG.md regenerated
• Composes_with B-0754 (zero-typing first-boot scope) + B-0831 (CI cascade Round 30 — threat-model elevation (nation-state + supply-chain) #6 + physical-as-hardware-support-test substrate)

🤖 Generated with Claude Code

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[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Adds a new backlog row (B-0832) capturing empirical operator feedback from a physical hardware-support test: dense WiFi environments can cause nmtui to miss the target SSID on initial scan, and the installer needs a visible rescan/refresh path.

Changes:

• Adds docs/backlog/P2/B-0832...md describing the issue and outlining three mitigation approaches (A banner, B rescan/relaunch loop, C nmcli flow).
• Regenerates/updates docs/BACKLOG.md to include the new B-0832 entry.

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 2 comments.

File	Description
docs/backlog/P2/B-0832-installer-nmtui-wifi-rescan-refresh-button-overlapping-networks-empirical-aaron-2026-05-26-physical-hardware-support-test.md	New P2 backlog row documenting the dense-WiFi nmtui rescan UX gap and candidate mitigations.
docs/BACKLOG.md	Adds the generated index entry for B-0832 under P2.

[AceHack]

Both threads resolved no-op as stale-false-positives. B-0831 row landed via PR #5343 (merge commit 1072f569) which Copilot reviewed PR #5345 before #5343 merged. Cross-refs are valid on current main:

$ git ls-tree -r origin/main -- docs/backlog/ | grep B-0831
100644 blob 38ea4ac78fdc...	docs/backlog/P1/B-0831-ci-cascade-6-full-install-plus-cluster-auto-join-eliminate-routine-human-physical-usb-test-aaron-2026-05-26.md

Per .claude/rules/blocked-green-ci-investigate-threads.md stale-but-fresh-looking-findings subsection: these were TRUE at thread-filing time but became STALE by review-resolution time. No-op resolution.