[Bunton33]

Fixes the bug Justin reported: unless the M-1 is added to a WiFi network, it ignores your launch preset and shows the dog logo and connection instructions at every power-on.

Cause

b8's first-boot signpost (wled.cpp, beginStrip) applied preset 9 (dog, then setup card) at every boot while WiFi was unconfigured, whatever launch preset the owner had set. The choice was saved (it shows in the UI) but never ran. That contradicts D20 (full control with no network); no decision or QA row covered it, which is how it passed the b8 gate.

Fix

The signpost now plays only while all of these hold: no WiFi configured, launch preset still the factory one (4), the owner has not chosen one, and preset 9 exists.

"Chosen" is a new saved flag (cfg.json def.psc), set by:

• saving Config > LED & Hardware (field Apply preset ___ at boot under Power up) while no WiFi is configured, or
• ticking Apply at boot on a different preset in the preset editor. (That box is pre-ticked on the current launch preset, so just renaming the dog preset does not count.)

Situation (no WiFi)	b8	b9
Factory-fresh, nothing chosen	dog, then card	same
Owner set launch preset 3	dog, then card (bug)	Sound Bars
Owner chose the dog (4) in LED & Hardware	dog, then card (bug)	dog only
b8 unit with launch preset != 4, updated by OTA	dog, then card	its preset, no re-save
Factory reset (filesystem wiped)	missing preset 9 (black, "Preset not found", from code reading)	plain Apollo blue
WLED-MM upgrade without preset 9	its own/missing preset 9	its own launch preset
Any unit with WiFi configured	its launch preset	unchanged

• No apollo/fs change, so it works by OTA.
• Compiled in only by [env:apollo_m1] (-D FACTORY_SIGNPOST_PRESET=9 -D FACTORY_BOOT_PRESET=4; platformio.ini change needs maintainer OK). Other envs of the fork now boot exactly like upstream (b8 forced preset 9 in every env).

Product trade-off (D27): accepted by Justin, 2026-10-25

Saving LED & Hardware without WiFi for any reason (for example the color order from #8) counts as choosing, so the setup card stops at power-on. It stays available as preset 5 "Setup". There is no UI way back to the boot signpost short of a full install; launch preset 9 is not a good substitute (it keeps showing the hotspot card after WiFi is set up), so the docs no longer suggest it.

Verified (no hardware)

• apollo/boot-signpost-test.js (runs in npm test): reads the boot condition from wled.cpp and the flags from [env:apollo_m1], checks them against apollo/fs, runs 12 boot cases, and checks both triggers. It fails on b8/main (reproduces the bug); six deliberate mutations of the fix are all caught. npm test: 20/20.
• Builds: apollo_m1 (+112 bytes vs b8), esp32s3dev_16MB_opi_hub75, esp32dev. ESP8266 can't build on this Mac (x86-only toolchain); CI covers it.
• Independent review (boot/persistence, compile gating, docs): its findings are fixed here (dog-preset re-save, missing preset 9, LED save while online, QA order, menu names, preset 9 advice).

Bench (QA_CHECKLIST.md, new D27 section)

Run on a separate factory-fresh unit (it marks the launch preset as chosen, which would break D13's final provision row). Key checks: nothing saved: dog then card every boot; rename the dog preset: still dog then card; launch preset 3 via LED & Hardware: Sound Bars, no card; 4: dog only; OTA from b8 with launch preset 3: Sound Bars without re-saving.

Customer docs (for you to publish; nothing posted from here)

Suggested addition for the docs repo page docs/products/m1/setup/use-without-wifi.md, matching apollo/wiki-rewrites/no-wifi-mode.md:

Choose what your M-1 starts with (firmware b9 or later). Open Config > LED & Hardware, scroll to Power up, set Apply preset ___ at boot (4 = Apollo dog, 1 = Scrolling Text, 2 = Apollo Blue) and press Save. Unplug and replug: it starts on that preset, without the setup card. Saving that page without WiFi for any reason also counts as choosing. The card is always in the preset list as "Setup".

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[coderabbitai]

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• Source mode: Auto
• Repository: ApolloAutomation/WLED-M1
• Branch: fix/no-wifi-launch-preset
• File: .coderabbit.yaml
• Commit: 02317a7
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