diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index abc2c55c..2765605e 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -15,6 +15,10 @@ endif
 export TEST_OS
 VM_IMAGE=$(CURDIR)/test/images/$(TEST_OS)
 
+ifeq ($(REPOS_DIR),)
+REPOS_DIR = /etc/yum.repos.d
+endif
+
 default: all
 
 src/composer/version.py:
@@ -133,8 +137,14 @@ vm: $(VM_IMAGE)
 # sure VM_IMAGE is as close as possible to the host!
 vm-local-repos: vm
 	bots/image-customize -v \
-		--upload /etc/yum.repos.d:/etc/yum.repos.d/ \
+		--run-command "rm -rf /etc/yum.repos.d" \
+		$(TEST_OS)
+	bots/image-customize -v \
+		--upload $(REPOS_DIR):/etc/yum.repos.d \
+		--run-command "yum -y remove composer-cli lorax-composer" \
 		--run-command "yum -y update" \
+		--run-command "yum -y install composer-cli lorax-composer" \
+		--run-command "systemctl enable lorax-composer" \
 		$(TEST_OS)
 
 vm-reset:
diff --git a/test/README.md b/test/README.md
index 9c314465..3e9cde83 100644
--- a/test/README.md
+++ b/test/README.md
@@ -41,12 +41,13 @@ To delete the generated image, run
 Base images are stored in `bots/images`. Set `TEST_DATA` to override this
 directory.
 
-Use
+To configure the image with all repositories found on the host system use
 
     $ make vm-local-repos
 
-to configure the image with all repositories found on the host system! This
-is mostly useful when running tests by hand on a downstream snapshot!
+You may also define `REPOS_DIR` variable to point to another directory
+containing yum .repo files. By default the value is `/etc/yum.repos.d`!
+This is mostly useful when running tests by hand on a downstream snapshot!
 
 ## Running tests