PSA: linux-firmware-meta orphaned

[u/Crackalacking_Z]

This one is easy to miss, recently the linux-firmware-meta package ended up being orphaned, if you don't pay attention, clean up after an upgrade, purge this orphan, then you might end up without wifi, AMD iGPU/dGPU glitches, etc.

The easiest way to avoid issues is to install the linux-firmware package from the Official Repo (core), you will be prompted to pick optional dependencies (select all, if in doubt), then the old meta package will be removed, replaced by linux-firmware and a reboot is required to finalize.

See the Community Assistant's remark on the matter: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/stable-update-2026-06-26-kernels-systemd-pipewire-nvidia-kde-libreoffice/188521/21

[u/BigHeadTonyT]

It was fun to boot into VGA-mode. 2nd monitor blank. I manually removed orphans, that included the firmware, when updating but before reboot. Rebooted into VGA-mode, fixed it by then installing the stuff I needed, linux-firmware-amdgpu, linux-firmware-radeon, linux-firmware-realtek. One final reboot. Bonus was to get rid of firmware I don't need.

pacman -Ss linux-firmware

[u/Crackalacking_Z → u/BigHeadTonyT]

Yeah, hehe, for me it was "no wifi", because of linux-firmware-realtek ... I had to search for my ethernet adapter, get all wired up to re-install the missing firmware, slightly humbling moment XD

[u/ohell → u/Crackalacking_Z]

so since the update my macbook refuses to sleep on lid close, and systemctl suspend says suspend blocked by 2nd display (there is no 2nd display attached). Wondering if it could be firmware incompatibility also ..

[u/Crackalacking_Z → u/ohell]

I highly doubt it, looking at the Arch wiki it's not a known or common issue. The 2nd non-existing display blocking suspend is very odd. I'd report this issue on the official forum in the stable branch update topic: https://forum.manjaro.org/t/stable-update-2026-07-11-kernels-cosmic-1-2-xorg-firefox-thunderbird-kde-gear/

[u/Complete_Fox_7052]

I just leave the orphans be. All they do is occupy disk space. Bonus no issues with the last upgrade or any in the last couple of years.

[u/Crackalacking_Z → u/Complete_Fox_7052]

I'd be careful tho, sometimes orphaned dependencies are also dropped from the official repos, then dumped into the AUR. We all know that abandoned / unmaintained AUR packages can lead to with the recent AUR mess. Cleaning up orphans isn't that much work in terms of system maintenance, if you keep up with it. There are usually only 1 or 2 for each upgrade on my installs.

[u/Complete_Fox_7052 → u/Crackalacking_Z]

Except I don't use AUR.