if you do a system-upgrade and your kernel config in /etc/default/grub isn't being applied to your loader entries, touch it. the /lib/kernel/install.d/20-grub-install script from systemd-udev does a timestamp comparison between /etc/default/grub and /etc/kernel/cmdline to determine whether to apply it or not.
linux fucksystemd systemd dracut

ftr, you can use kernel-install( to add a kernel and rebuild the initramfs. you could also use dracut(, but kernel-install is the way the package manager adds a new kernel.

related to my recent issue (2025/7/13), is this bugreport: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2333757

basically, if dkms fails to install then the package manager aborts building the initrd.

related to my recent issue (2025/7/13) is this bug report: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2333757
basically, if dkms fails to install a module, then the package manager will abort building the initrd. dkms is fucking terrible too...
initrd initramfs linux grub systemd dracut dkms