That’s how the update process for the kernel works. The currently running kernel and active modules are kept in RAM, while all files on disk are replaced. These new files can’t be used by your old kernel meaning you can’t load new modules.
Coming from Debian, it was…not expected. I understand how and why it happened, but the user experience was surprising.
Debian keeps the previous kernel around, which makes perfect sense to me — in the event that a kernel update borks your system you can just load the previous one. This would probably only happen due to out of tree modules (looking at you, Nvidia…).
Fair, this is mainly the difference in package manager. Apt/dpkg do a lot of additional steps and handling to keep your system running as smoothly as possible. Stuff like reinstalling your bootloader when it updates or keeping old kernels available. Pacman is just much simpler and only installs packages. If you wanted to keep the old kernel or multiple versions of a program you have to build it yourself.
That’s how the update process for the kernel works. The currently running kernel and active modules are kept in RAM, while all files on disk are replaced. These new files can’t be used by your old kernel meaning you can’t load new modules.
Coming from Debian, it was…not expected. I understand how and why it happened, but the user experience was surprising.
Debian keeps the previous kernel around, which makes perfect sense to me — in the event that a kernel update borks your system you can just load the previous one. This would probably only happen due to out of tree modules (looking at you, Nvidia…).
Fair, this is mainly the difference in package manager. Apt/dpkg do a lot of additional steps and handling to keep your system running as smoothly as possible. Stuff like reinstalling your bootloader when it updates or keeping old kernels available. Pacman is just much simpler and only installs packages. If you wanted to keep the old kernel or multiple versions of a program you have to build it yourself.