linux-firmware meta package on Arch Linux
Arch Linux linux-firmware is now a meta package. Its derivative Manjaro renamed it to linux-firmware-meta. The default set covers a wide range of firmwares that may not be applicable to most devices and can be trimmed down.
- Remove the meta package,
pacman -Rn linux-firmware
- Identify device manufacturer,
lspci
- Remove irrelevant firmware, e.g. if Nvidia device is not installed,
pacman -Rns linux-firmware-nvidia
- Mark the necessary firmware as explicitly installed,
pacman -D --asexplicit $(pacman -Qs -q linux-firmware | sed -z 's|\n| |g')
- This is necessary to avoid removing them when removing orphans.