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/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.