diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index c13864442..230f72f8a 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ cache:
   key: "$CI_COMMIT_REF_SLUG"
   policy: pull-push
 
+
 # Linux Build (CachyOS optimized)
 build-linux:
   stage: build
@@ -27,6 +28,7 @@ build-linux:
   before_script:
     - pacman -Syu --noconfirm
     - pacman -S --noconfirm alsa-lib base-devel boost boost-libs catch2 cmake curl ffmpeg fmt fuse2 gamemode gcc gdb git glslang glu libusb libxi libxkbcommon libxkbcommon-x11 libxss libzip lz4 mbedtls2 mesa nasm ninja nlohmann-json openal openssl opus perl pipewire-audio pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa qt5-base qt5-imageformats qt5-multimedia qt5-tools qt5-wayland qt5ct sdl2 sdl2-compat unzip vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-mesa-layers wget xcb-util-cursor xcb-util-image xcb-util-keysyms xcb-util-renderutil xcb-util-wm xorg-server-xvfb zip zstd zsync
+    # Create shasum compatibility wrapper for AppImage build
     - echo '#!/bin/bash' > /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo 'if [ "$1" = "-a" ] && [ "$2" = "256" ]; then' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo '  shift 2' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
@@ -36,6 +38,7 @@ build-linux:
     - echo 'fi' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - chmod +x /usr/local/bin/shasum
   script:
+    # Clean and reset submodules to handle any inconsistencies
     - git submodule deinit --all --force || true
     - git submodule update --init --recursive --force
     - mkdir -p build && cd build
@@ -47,39 +50,14 @@ build-linux:
     - find build/ -name "*.so" -o -name "citron*" | head -20 || echo "No shared libraries or executables found"
     - echo "Checking library dependencies..."
     - ldd build/bin/citron || echo "citron binary not found or ldd failed"
-    - chmod +x AppImage-build-local.sh
-    - echo "Attempting AppImage build with FUSE workaround..."
-    - export APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1
-    - export ARCH=x86_64
-    - export VERSION=$(git describe --tags --always)
-    - echo "Testing shasum compatibility..."
-    - which shasum || echo "shasum not found in PATH"
-    - echo "Testing shasum -a 256 syntax..."
-    - echo "test" | shasum -a 256 || echo "shasum -a 256 failed"
-    - echo "test" | sha256sum || echo "sha256sum failed"
-    - echo "Running AppImage build..."
-    - ./AppImage-build-local.sh || echo "AppImage build failed, continuing..."
-    - ls -la *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage files found"
-    - echo "AppImage size information:"
-    - du -h *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage to measure"
-    - echo "Total artifact size:"
-    - du -sh citron.AppImage build/bin/citron 2>/dev/null || echo "Cannot measure artifact sizes"
-    - echo "Compressing AppImage for upload..."
-    - gzip -9 -c citron.AppImage > citron.AppImage.gz
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz
-    - du -h citron.AppImage.gz
-    - echo "AppImage compressed with gzip successfully"
+    - echo "Creating binary archive for upload..."
     - tar -czf citron-binary.tar.gz build/bin/
     - ls -la citron-binary.tar.gz
     - du -h citron-binary.tar.gz
-    - split -b 50M citron.AppImage.gz citron.AppImage.gz.part
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz.part*
-    - echo "AppImage split into chunks for upload"
-    - echo 'Note: To reassemble: cat citron.AppImage.gz.part* > citron.AppImage.gz'
+    - echo "Binary archive created successfully"
   artifacts:
     paths:
       - citron-binary.tar.gz
-      - citron.AppImage.gz.part*
     expire_in: 1 week
     when: always
   only:
@@ -99,6 +77,7 @@ build-linux-v3:
   before_script:
     - pacman -Syu --noconfirm
     - pacman -S --noconfirm alsa-lib base-devel boost boost-libs catch2 cmake curl ffmpeg fmt fuse2 gamemode gcc gdb git glslang glu libusb libxi libxkbcommon libxkbcommon-x11 libxss libzip lz4 mbedtls2 mesa nasm ninja nlohmann-json openal openssl opus perl pipewire-audio pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa qt5-base qt5-imageformats qt5-multimedia qt5-tools qt5-wayland qt5ct sdl2 sdl2-compat unzip vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-mesa-layers wget xcb-util-cursor xcb-util-image xcb-util-keysyms xcb-util-renderutil xcb-util-wm xorg-server-xvfb zip zstd zsync
+    # Create shasum compatibility wrapper for AppImage build
     - echo '#!/bin/bash' > /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo 'if [ "$1" = "-a" ] && [ "$2" = "256" ]; then' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo '  shift 2' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
@@ -108,6 +87,7 @@ build-linux-v3:
     - echo 'fi' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - chmod +x /usr/local/bin/shasum
   script:
+    # Clean and reset submodules to handle any inconsistencies
     - git submodule deinit --all --force || true
     - git submodule update --init --recursive --force
     - mkdir -p build && cd build
@@ -119,39 +99,14 @@ build-linux-v3:
     - find build/ -name "*.so" -o -name "citron*" | head -20 || echo "No shared libraries or executables found"
     - echo "Checking library dependencies..."
     - ldd build/bin/citron || echo "citron binary not found or ldd failed"
-    - chmod +x AppImage-build-local.sh
-    - echo "Attempting AppImage build with FUSE workaround..."
-    - export APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1
-    - export ARCH=x86_64
-    - export VERSION=$(git describe --tags --always)
-    - echo "Testing shasum compatibility..."
-    - which shasum || echo "shasum not found in PATH"
-    - echo "Testing shasum -a 256 syntax..."
-    - echo "test" | shasum -a 256 || echo "shasum -a 256 failed"
-    - echo "test" | sha256sum || echo "sha256sum failed"
-    - echo "Running AppImage build..."
-    - ./AppImage-build-local.sh || echo "AppImage build failed, continuing..."
-    - ls -la *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage files found"
-    - echo "AppImage size information:"
-    - du -h *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage to measure"
-    - echo "Total artifact size:"
-    - du -sh citron.AppImage build/bin/citron 2>/dev/null || echo "Cannot measure artifact sizes"
-    - echo "Compressing AppImage for upload..."
-    - gzip -9 -c citron.AppImage > citron.AppImage.gz
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz
-    - du -h citron.AppImage.gz
-    - echo "AppImage compressed with gzip successfully"
+    - echo "Creating binary archive for upload..."
     - tar -czf citron-binary.tar.gz build/bin/
     - ls -la citron-binary.tar.gz
     - du -h citron-binary.tar.gz
-    - split -b 50M citron.AppImage.gz citron.AppImage.gz.part
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz.part*
-    - echo "AppImage split into chunks for upload"
-    - echo 'Note: To reassemble: cat citron.AppImage.gz.part* > citron.AppImage.gz'
+    - echo "Binary archive created successfully"
   artifacts:
     paths:
       - citron-binary.tar.gz
-      - citron.AppImage.gz.part*
     expire_in: 1 week
     when: always
   only:
@@ -171,6 +126,7 @@ build-linux-steamdeck:
   before_script:
     - pacman -Syu --noconfirm
     - pacman -S --noconfirm alsa-lib base-devel boost boost-libs catch2 cmake curl ffmpeg fmt fuse2 gamemode gcc gdb git glslang glu libusb libxi libxkbcommon libxkbcommon-x11 libxss libzip lz4 mbedtls2 mesa nasm ninja nlohmann-json openal openssl opus perl pipewire-audio pulseaudio pulseaudio-alsa qt5-base qt5-imageformats qt5-multimedia qt5-tools qt5-wayland qt5ct sdl2 sdl2-compat unzip vulkan-headers vulkan-icd-loader vulkan-mesa-layers wget xcb-util-cursor xcb-util-image xcb-util-keysyms xcb-util-renderutil xcb-util-wm xorg-server-xvfb zip zstd zsync
+    # Create shasum compatibility wrapper for AppImage build
     - echo '#!/bin/bash' > /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo 'if [ "$1" = "-a" ] && [ "$2" = "256" ]; then' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - echo '  shift 2' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
@@ -180,6 +136,7 @@ build-linux-steamdeck:
     - echo 'fi' >> /usr/local/bin/shasum
     - chmod +x /usr/local/bin/shasum
   script:
+    # Clean and reset submodules to handle any inconsistencies
     - git submodule deinit --all --force || true
     - git submodule update --init --recursive --force
     - mkdir -p build && cd build
@@ -191,39 +148,14 @@ build-linux-steamdeck:
     - find build/ -name "*.so" -o -name "citron*" | head -20 || echo "No shared libraries or executables found"
     - echo "Checking library dependencies..."
     - ldd build/bin/citron || echo "citron binary not found or ldd failed"
-    - chmod +x AppImage-build-local.sh
-    - echo "Attempting AppImage build with FUSE workaround..."
-    - export APPIMAGE_EXTRACT_AND_RUN=1
-    - export ARCH=x86_64
-    - export VERSION=$(git describe --tags --always)
-    - echo "Testing shasum compatibility..."
-    - which shasum || echo "shasum not found in PATH"
-    - echo "Testing shasum -a 256 syntax..."
-    - echo "test" | shasum -a 256 || echo "shasum -a 256 failed"
-    - echo "test" | sha256sum || echo "sha256sum failed"
-    - echo "Running AppImage build..."
-    - ./AppImage-build-local.sh || echo "AppImage build failed, continuing..."
-    - ls -la *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage files found"
-    - echo "AppImage size information:"
-    - du -h *.AppImage || echo "No AppImage to measure"
-    - echo "Total artifact size:"
-    - du -sh citron.AppImage build/bin/citron 2>/dev/null || echo "Cannot measure artifact sizes"
-    - echo "Compressing AppImage for upload..."
-    - gzip -9 -c citron.AppImage > citron.AppImage.gz
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz
-    - du -h citron.AppImage.gz
-    - echo "AppImage compressed with gzip successfully"
+    - echo "Creating binary archive for upload..."
     - tar -czf citron-binary.tar.gz build/bin/
     - ls -la citron-binary.tar.gz
     - du -h citron-binary.tar.gz
-    - split -b 50M citron.AppImage.gz citron.AppImage.gz.part
-    - ls -la citron.AppImage.gz.part*
-    - echo "AppImage split into chunks for upload"
-    - echo 'Note: To reassemble: cat citron.AppImage.gz.part* > citron.AppImage.gz'
+    - echo "Binary archive created successfully"
   artifacts:
     paths:
       - citron-binary.tar.gz
-      - citron.AppImage.gz.part*
     expire_in: 1 week
     when: always
   only:
@@ -243,6 +175,7 @@ build-android:
   before_script:
     - apt-get update -qq
     - apt-get install -y -qq openjdk-17-jdk wget unzip curl git cmake build-essential pkg-config zip glslang-tools
+    # Install Android SDK (latest version for Ubuntu 24.04)
     - wget -q https://dl.google.com/android/repository/commandlinetools-linux-11076708_latest.zip
     - unzip -q commandlinetools-linux-11076708_latest.zip
     - mkdir -p android-sdk/cmdline-tools
@@ -251,10 +184,12 @@ build-android:
     - export PATH=$PATH:$ANDROID_SDK_ROOT/cmdline-tools/latest/bin
     - printf "y\ny\ny\ny\ny\ny\ny\n" | sdkmanager --licenses || true
     - sdkmanager "platform-tools" "platforms;android-34" "build-tools;34.0.0"
+    # Install Android NDK
     - wget -q https://dl.google.com/android/repository/android-ndk-r26b-linux.zip
     - unzip -q android-ndk-r26b-linux.zip
     - export ANDROID_NDK_HOME=$PWD/android-ndk-r26b
   script:
+    # Clean and reset submodules to handle any inconsistencies
     - git submodule deinit --all --force || true
     - git submodule update --init --recursive --force
     - cmake -B build-android -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=$BUILD_TYPE -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=$ANDROID_NDK_HOME/build/cmake/android.toolchain.cmake -DANDROID_ABI=arm64-v8a -DANDROID_PLATFORM=android-30 -DENABLE_QT=OFF -DENABLE_SDL2=OFF -DENABLE_WEB_SERVICE=OFF -DCITRON_USE_BUNDLED_VCPKG=ON -DCITRON_USE_BUNDLED_FFMPEG=ON -DANDROID_ARM_NEON=ON -DCITRON_ENABLE_LTO=ON
@@ -271,7 +206,7 @@ build-android:
     - develop
     - ci-fixes
     - merge_requests
-  allow_failure: true
+  allow_failure: true  # Allow failure if Android runner not available
 
 # Unit Tests
 test-unit:
@@ -283,6 +218,7 @@ test-unit:
     - apt-get update -qq
     - apt-get install -y -qq build-essential cmake ninja-build git
   script:
+    # Clean and reset submodules to handle any inconsistencies
     - git submodule deinit --all --force || true
     - git submodule update --init --recursive --force
     - cmake -B build-test -S . -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Debug -DCITRON_TESTS=ON -DENABLE_QT=OFF -DENABLE_SDL2=OFF -DENABLE_WEB_SERVICE=OFF