On 10/19/19, Eli Schwartz via arch-general
If your kernel issue was making you not do any updates at all, this seems... suboptimal as you then get no updates at all. The kernel is the one package it is completely okay to not upgrade with the rest of your system, since it doesn't exactly link to any libraries (or have anything link to it), and furthermore, it is totally fine to not have a kernel installed (for example, chroots and containers use the host kernel) or install any other kernel like the linux-lts kernel, currently at version 4.19.80-1.
So my advice is to either add the "linux" package to IgnorePkg until your issue is resolved, or switch to the linux-lts kernel for now. The next LTS kernel will skip from 4.19 to 5.4, and hopefully by that time this bug will be fixed... Then simply keep up to date as normal, while keeping an eye on the referenced bugzilla.freedesktop.org ticket.
Of course, once you are keeping your system up to date while handling the kernel separately and specially, you should have no problem installing or updating any other package, in this case 'base'.
Also note that 'base' does not depend on 'linux'.
Thanks A LOT. This answer was awesome.
I would disable the nvidia card in the bios and move on with my life, never buying anything with a nvidia chip in it again, or until they have enough respect for their customers that you can use a FOSS driver and have it work 100%.
Will check that. So, the problem is solved. Should I mark 'SOLVED' in some place or something like that? Couldn't find some explanation on the Wiki and Forum, so, let me know if I must, please. Thanks a lot!