diff --git a/ci/setup_spack.sh b/ci/setup_spack.sh
index c22075045429615334b2a8a2c51388f9f6f16de8..81229334654ec99f6254e7901903eeed447a9f0a 100755
--- a/ci/setup_spack.sh
+++ b/ci/setup_spack.sh
@@ -82,11 +82,13 @@ cp "${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/mirrors.yaml" spack/etc/spack
 
 echo "Setting up packages"
 
-if [ ! -e ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml ]
+if [ -e ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml ]
 then
-  echo "packages:" > ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml
+  mv ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml packages.yaml.old
 fi
 
+echo "packages:" > ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml
+
 export system_compiler=$(jq -Mrc '
 .stack
  | .system_arch as $arch
@@ -102,6 +104,11 @@ jq -Mrc '
  | .[]
 ' ${STACK_CONFIG} >> ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml
 
+if [ -e ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml.old ]
+then
+  yq '. *= load("packages.yaml.old")' ${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml
+fi
+
 cp "${SPACK_SYSTEM_CONFIG_PATH}/packages.yaml" spack/etc/spack
 
 echo "Setting up extra repos"
diff --git a/dockerfiles/rhel9-kuma/Dockerfile b/dockerfiles/rhel9-kuma/Dockerfile
index 0a2f053cfe96e146a8c26be4af3d2f71a14f21ff..158440920444f51fa62fd590b1d6b4287e42511e 100644
--- a/dockerfiles/rhel9-kuma/Dockerfile
+++ b/dockerfiles/rhel9-kuma/Dockerfile
@@ -49,3 +49,5 @@ RUN yum install -y --enablerepo=$CUDA_REPO \
 RUN yum install -y --enablerepo=$GPFS_REPO \
     gpfs.base \
     && yum -y clean all && rm -fr /var/cache 
+
+RUN pip3 install yq