diff --git a/files/scripts/cachyos-kernel.sh b/files/scripts/cachyos-kernel.sh
index e2d5ea4..66bd1cc 100644
--- a/files/scripts/cachyos-kernel.sh
+++ b/files/scripts/cachyos-kernel.sh
@@ -19,23 +19,59 @@ KERNEL_PACKAGES=(
   kernel-cachyos-lto-modules
 )
 
+# Disable kernel-install hooks so they don't trigger inside the container
+# build environment. The initramfs will be generated explicitly below.
 pushd /usr/lib/kernel/install.d
 printf '%s\n' '#!/bin/sh' 'exit 0' >05-rpmostree.install
 printf '%s\n' '#!/bin/sh' 'exit 0' >50-dracut.install
 chmod +x 05-rpmostree.install 50-dracut.install
 popd
 
+# Erase stock Fedora kernel RPMs from the package database
 for pkg in kernel kernel-core kernel-modules kernel-modules-core; do
   rpm --erase "$pkg" --nodeps || true
 done
 
-CURRENT_MODULES=$(ls /usr/lib/modules | head -n1)
-if [ -n "$CURRENT_MODULES" ]; then
-  rm -rf "/usr/lib/modules/$CURRENT_MODULES"
-fi
+# Remove ALL existing kernel module directories. The original script used
+# `head -n1` which only removed the first entry — on Kinoite's base image
+# there are typically two kernel versions, leaving an orphaned module
+# directory that confuses rpm-ostree/bootc at deploy time.
+for KVER in $(ls /usr/lib/modules 2>/dev/null); do
+  rm -rf "/usr/lib/modules/$KVER"
+done
 
 dnf5 -y install "${KERNEL_PACKAGES[@]}"
 
 dnf5 versionlock add "${KERNEL_PACKAGES[@]}" || true
 
+# Identify the newly installed CachyOS kernel version
+NEW_KVER=$(ls /usr/lib/modules | head -n1)
+
+# Ensure vmlinuz is at the path expected by rpm-ostree and bootc for boot
+# entry generation. Some COPR kernel RPMs only install vmlinuz to /boot and
+# not to /usr/lib/modules/<kver>/vmlinuz; copy it over if missing.
+if [ ! -f "/usr/lib/modules/${NEW_KVER}/vmlinuz" ]; then
+  if [ -f "/boot/vmlinuz-${NEW_KVER}" ]; then
+    cp "/boot/vmlinuz-${NEW_KVER}" "/usr/lib/modules/${NEW_KVER}/vmlinuz"
+  else
+    echo "ERROR: vmlinuz not found for kernel ${NEW_KVER}" >&2
+    exit 1
+  fi
+fi
+
+# Generate the initramfs inside the container image so that rpm-ostree and
+# bootc can use it directly at deploy time. Without this step, Kinoite boots
+# with no initramfs and hits a dracut emergency shell (the "wall of errors").
+#   --no-hostonly : include all drivers, not just the CI build host's hardware
+#   --add ostree  : include the ostree dracut module for atomic deployments
+dracut \
+  --reproducible \
+  --no-hostonly \
+  --add "ostree" \
+  --force \
+  "/usr/lib/modules/${NEW_KVER}/initrd" \
+  "${NEW_KVER}"
+
+# Atomic images manage /boot via the bootloader layer; clear any kernel
+# files the RPM dropped there.
 rm -rf /boot/*
diff --git a/recipes/common/fedora-packages.yml b/recipes/common/fedora-packages.yml
index d7f197c..4c7526d 100644
--- a/recipes/common/fedora-packages.yml
+++ b/recipes/common/fedora-packages.yml
@@ -28,7 +28,6 @@ modules:
         - alacritty
         - ripgrep
         - fd-find
-        - realtime-setup
         - zoxide
         - fzf