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orca/docs
Neil e5a1e79e8e docs(linux): say which package to install and how updates arrive (#18123)
* docs(linux): say which package to install and how updates arrive

Closes #5188. Closes #10987.

The install guide's entire Linux section was "AppImage and `.deb` builds are
available. See the Releases page for details." It named two of the three
published packages, gave no basis for choosing between them, and said nothing
about updating -- which is the one thing that actually differs between them.
Separately, nothing human-facing said the Linux CLI is `orca-ide`; only
skills/orca-cli/SKILL.md carried it, which agents read and humans do not.

Install page now picks the package by update behaviour: the AppImage
self-updates, deb/rpm report the new version and hand over the install command,
and a repackaged build is not offered a download it cannot apply. Records that
Orca never escalates privileges for the package install, and points at #18086
for the signed repo as planned, not shipped.

Adds .rpm to the download list. Release CI builds it
(release-cut.yml: `--linux AppImage deb rpm`) and
verify-release-required-assets.mjs requires the artifact, so omitting it was
just wrong.

The CLI command name is now stated where humans hit it -- the CLI reference and
overview -- with the GNOME Orca collision as the reason, plus the two places
bare `orca` does work: inside Orca-managed terminals (PTY PATH shim) and on a
packaged `orca serve` host (the ~/.local/bin dispatcher). The headless guide
gains the same note, which is what makes its `orca skills install` lines
correct rather than a typo.

* docs(linux): fix install ordering, CLI verification, and serve bootstrap

Readiness review found ten defects. Two would have had a reader run the wrong
program, and one would have had them install a .deb over a live app.

Install ordering was reversed. The page said "run it, then quit and reopen
Orca"; the ref this is gated to land with says the opposite in four places
(linux-package-downloaded-status.ts LINUX_PACKAGE_MANUAL_INSTALL_MESSAGE,
"Quit Orca before running the system package install command", plus the
recovery card's title, summary and explainer). That wording came from main's
older run-then-quit card, which the stack deliberately reversed when it
retitled the card to "Manual Install Required". Now: quit first.

CLI verification put the Linux caveat *below* `command -v orca`. That check
succeeds on any GNOME desktop and resolves to the screen reader, so the reader
got a confident hit from the page's own verification step and then invoked the
wrong program. Caveat moved above, and the block now spells `orca-ide`
literally instead of asking the reader to substitute.

The serve bootstrap was circular: the bare-`orca` dispatcher is written *during*
serve startup (main-process-runtime-launch.ts), so it can never be the command
that starts serve. First launch is `orca-ide serve`. Fixed here and in the two
pages this links to.

Accuracy: the install command now matches what the code emits -- absolute paths
resolved from the trusted directories and a POSIX-single-quoted package path,
as pinned by linux-package-install-command.test.ts -- and names the manager
fallbacks (dpkg; zypper/dnf/yum/rpm) rather than presenting apt as the only
form. The pending path honours XDG_CACHE_HOME. rpm arch tokens are x86_64 and
aarch64, not deb's amd64/arm64. arm64 AppImage is linked. Dropped the container
example: isExternallyManagedLinuxInstall() needs a root marker AND no trusted
package manager, and a Debian-based container has apt, so it is not flagged.
2026-09-02 03:49:40 -07:00
..
2026-08-28 00:59:21 -07:00