A part of my post got cut off-- I asked if it is better to install from the repos, the tarball, or get an image with nonfree drivers.

Oh, sorry.

There is no "image with nonfree drivers". I suspect you mean the image containing the non-free firmware. The non-free wl driver does not need firmware.

And yes, it is the initramfs indeed. I reinstalled Artix on top, but I will switch HDDs and redo the procedure I did, and get some more concrete terminal output to post.

Thanks for the quick answer.

when getting to building the 6.0 kernel boot image, I get an error

I presume by "6.0 kernel boot image" you actually mean the initramfs, is that correct?

We probably can't help without seeing the actual error message. My psychic powers have been waning lately...

And we might not be able to help at all. It's called "unstable" for a reason

Enter "bcm4331 debian" into a search engine. Surely you are aware of the existence of search engines?

Longtime Arch user, restoring an old 2012 MacBook Pro for my wife. She only needs it for basic stuff like web browsing and basic video streaming, so after discussing with some fellow enthusiasts it was probably better than I start her on something solid and stable. Devuan fits that bill, minus the horrible SysD.

Anyway... my first install attempt ended up not booting. That's alright, I will just install rEFInd, which worked.

I updated my sources.list to Ceres instead of Chimaera, and that's where the issues started... I marked GRUB as held so it doesn't overwrite my rEFInd, but when getting to building the 6.0 kernel boot image, I get an error 1. I follishly rebooted, booting in a kernel panic.

Also, BCM4331. Best way to install that driver? My wife won't care for a USB dongle.

Looking forward to learning. I am a longtime Arch user but always looking to broaden my horizons.