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Update-safe P16 installation on H7607BA.300

This machine keeps the currently working P16/Omarchy kernel and the experimental NPU kernel in separate boot entries. The latter must only be replaced after a kernel, module and hardware qualification. A successful DKMS build is not a boot test.

Owned local state

packages/build-local.py snapshots the currently installed, audited files and builds three local Arch packages in ~/.cache/p16-local-packages/:

  • p16-platform-policy: ACPI tables and hook, P16 mkinitcpio/keyboard/boot policy, touchpad quirk, services and tools.
  • p16-speaker-firmware: the six Cirrus files for this machine. The three real files are checked against config/speaker-firmware.json; the other three are symlinks. Vendor firmware is read from the installed machine, not committed to Git.
  • p16-mayflower: Plymouth theme, pinned logo source, refresh script and Pacman hook. The selected theme remains in Plymouth's own config and the refresh hook reapplies it after Plymouth/Omarchy settings upgrades.

After changing a local policy file, rebuild these packages and reinstall the affected package with pacman -U. Keep the resulting package archives in a separate backup: the build script uses this machine's ACPI and vendor assets. The installed package archives are copied to /var/lib/p16-platform/packages/ on this machine. pacman -Qk p16-platform-policy p16-speaker-firmware p16-mayflower verifies their payload after an update.

Boot-image policy

The upstream 90-mkinitcpio-install.hook was installed in /etc by limine-mkinitcpio-hook. Its broad firmware trigger would rebuild every installed kernel, including the NPU experiment. scripts/install-mkinitcpio-guard.sh replaces this one hook with config/90-mkinitcpio-install.hook and adds a NoUpgrade entry to /etc/pacman.conf. The original files are saved in /var/lib/p16-platform/boot-hook-backup/. The replacement calls p16-mkinitcpio-managed, which rebuilds only package-managed Limine entries. Standalone experimental UKIs are frozen during routine updates.

NoUpgrade causes a future upstream change to appear as a .pacnew; review it and adapt the local hook if its trigger set changes. Run python3 scripts/check-update-state.py after Omarchy updates. The user-owned Omarchy post-update hook runs that check automatically, but a post-transaction check cannot undo an already finished transaction.

Omarchy channel changes replace /etc/pacman.conf. The installed pre-refresh-pacman hook reapplies this policy immediately after the refresh. The package-owned 00-p16-guard-preflight.hook blocks a Pacman transaction if the policy is still missing. This prevents a broad initcpio rebuild from silently rewriting the experimental UKIs.

NPU and out-of-tree modules

The audited NPU bootstrap module is packaged separately in n1x-lab/npu. NVIDIA 615.78.08, SPBM 0.3.0.rtxspark.5, and CPUID 0.8.2 are installed via DKMS for the current NPU kernel. Their srcversion and vermagic matched the manual test modules before migration; the originals are backed up under /var/lib/p16-platform/boot-hook-backup/npu-test-modules/. Do not remove a loaded module or rewrite the current NPU UKI while proving the replacement. A new kernel needs its own versioned package, DKMS builds, staged UKI, explicit boot selection, and a hardware test before being made the default. Keep p16-known-working intact as recovery.