diff --git a/iso/docker/Dockerfile.arm64 b/iso/docker/Dockerfile.arm64
index d06cd83..a171117 100644
--- a/iso/docker/Dockerfile.arm64
+++ b/iso/docker/Dockerfile.arm64
@@ -65,6 +65,10 @@ RUN git clone --depth=1 https://gitlab.archlinux.org/archlinux/archiso.git /tmp/
     cp -a /tmp/archiso/configs /usr/share/archiso/ && \
     rm -rf /tmp/archiso
 
+# Pre-download linux-aarch64 so mkarchiso can install it from local cache
+# even if the [alarm] mirror is unreliable at ISO-build time.
+RUN pacman -Sw --noconfirm linux-aarch64
+
 WORKDIR /orionos
 COPY . .
 
diff --git a/iso/docker/entrypoint-arm64.sh b/iso/docker/entrypoint-arm64.sh
index ffca93b..c074af0 100755
--- a/iso/docker/entrypoint-arm64.sh
+++ b/iso/docker/entrypoint-arm64.sh
@@ -643,6 +643,14 @@ locale-gen
 echo "LANG=en_US.UTF-8" > /etc/locale.conf
 ln -sf /usr/share/zoneinfo/UTC /etc/localtime
 
+echo "=== /boot/ contents ==="
+ls -la /boot/ 2>&1 || echo "(cannot list /boot)"
+echo "=== linux-aarch64 package status ==="
+pacman -Q linux-aarch64 2>&1 || echo "NOT INSTALLED"
+echo "=== /usr/lib/modules/ ==="
+ls /usr/lib/modules/ 2>&1 || echo "(empty)"
+echo "=== end diagnostics ==="
+
 useradd -m -G wheel,audio,video,storage,input -s /bin/bash orion 2>/dev/null || true
 echo "orion:orionos" | chpasswd