diff -u b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
--- b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
+++ b/core/lib/Drupal/Core/DrupalKernel.php
@@ -40,9 +40,18 @@
   protected $moduleList;
 
   /**
+   * Holds an updated list of enabled modules.
+   *
+   * @var array
+   *   An associative array whose keys are module names and whose values are
+   *   ignored.
+   */
+  protected $newModuleList;
+
+  /**
    * An array of module data objects.
    *
-   * The data objects have the same datastructure as returned by
+   * The data objects have the same data structure as returned by
    * file_scan_directory() but only the uri property is used.
    *
    * @var array
@@ -187,7 +196,7 @@
    * Implements Drupal\Core\DrupalKernelInterface::updateModules().
    */
   public function updateModules(array $module_list, array $module_paths = array()) {
-    $this->moduleList = $module_list;
+    $this->newModuleList = $module_list;
     foreach ($module_paths as $module => $path) {
       $this->moduleData[$module] = (object) array('uri' => $path);
     }
@@ -237,8 +246,14 @@
         $fully_qualified_class_name = '\\' . $class;
         $this->container = new $fully_qualified_class_name;
       }
-      // Verify that the module list didn't change since the container was
-      // compiled.
+      // First check whether the list of modules changed in this request.
+      if (isset($this->container) && isset($this->moduleList) && isset($this->newModuleList) && array_keys($this->moduleList) !== array_keys($this->newModuleList)) {
+        $this->moduleList = $this->newModuleList;
+        unset($this->container, $this->newModuleList);
+      }
+      // Second, verify that some other request -- for example on another
+      // web frontend or during the installer -- changed the list of enabled
+      // modules.
       if (isset($this->container)) {
         $module_list = array_keys($this->moduleList ?: $this->container->get('config.factory')->get('system.module')->load()->get('enabled'));
         if ($module_list !== $this->container->getParameter('container.modules')) {