diff --git a/images/fedora-remote/upstream-exclude.txt b/images/fedora-remote/upstream-exclude.txt
index 4ad3f08..32d7ab0 100644
--- a/images/fedora-remote/upstream-exclude.txt
+++ b/images/fedora-remote/upstream-exclude.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,11 @@
-# Aggressive trim for a headless Proxmox VM: there is no physical hardware, so
-# drop all firmware and non-virtio drivers. Keep qemu-guest-agent (Proxmox) and
-# the virtio stack (in the kernel / kernel-modules).
+# Aggressive trim for a headless Proxmox VM. Almost all physical hardware is
+# absent, so drop the firmware and non-virtio drivers for it. Keep
+# qemu-guest-agent (Proxmox), the virtio stack (kernel / kernel-modules), and
+# the Intel GPU bits below for the passthrough iGPU.
 
-# All firmware (none is needed under virtio)
+# Firmware for hardware this VM does not have (kept off virtio).
+# intel-gpu-firmware is intentionally NOT listed: the host's UHD 630 is passed
+# through (vfio-pci), so the guest's i915 needs the GuC/HuC blobs.
 amd-gpu-firmware
 amd-ucode-firmware
 alsa-sof-firmware
@@ -10,7 +13,6 @@ atheros-firmware
 brcmfmac-firmware
 cirrus-audio-firmware
 intel-audio-firmware
-intel-gpu-firmware
 intel-lpmd
 intel-vsc-firmware
 iwlegacy-firmware
@@ -24,7 +26,9 @@ nxpwireless-firmware
 qcom-wwan-firmware
 realtek-firmware
 tiwilink-firmware
-libva-intel-media-driver
+
+# Kept for the passthrough Intel iGPU (not for virtio): VA-API decode via iHD.
+# iris (Mesa) and i915 (kernel-modules) already come from upstream common.yaml.
 
 # Extra kernel modules are not needed in a VM
 kernel-modules-extra