diff --git a/templates/packer/ansible/roles/common/tasks/packages.yml b/templates/packer/ansible/roles/common/tasks/packages.yml
index 26b79bcc9..0fc87313f 100644
--- a/templates/packer/ansible/roles/common/tasks/packages.yml
+++ b/templates/packer/ansible/roles/common/tasks/packages.yml
@@ -28,9 +28,8 @@
 - name: Upgrade all packages
   tags:
     - always
-  package:
-    name: "*"
-    state: latest
+  shell: |
+    sudo dnf -y update
   register: result
   retries: 5
   until: result is success
@@ -45,11 +44,8 @@
 - name: Install required packages
   tags:
     - always
-  package:
-    name:
-      - jq
-      - unzip
-      - vector
+  shell: |
+    sudo dnf -y install jq unzip vector
   register: result
   retries: 5
   until: result is success
@@ -122,10 +118,8 @@
   tags:
     - ci
     - rhel
-  package:
-    name:
-      - osbuild-composer-worker
-    state: present
+  shell: |
+    sudo dnf -y install osbuild-composer-worker
 
 - name: Install worker rpm from copr
   tags:
diff --git a/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl b/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
index ab6dda444..42789f3de 100644
--- a/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
+++ b/templates/packer/worker.pkr.hcl
@@ -166,14 +166,12 @@ update-crypto-policies --set LEGACY
 EOF
   }
 
-  # Ansible is a little broken on fedora>39, needs python-six & 3.9
-  # Installing python3.9 breaks dnf update with ansible, so do it here
-  # first
+  # Ansible is quite broken on fedora 40, using python 3.10 + not using
+  # the dnf module seems to work.
   provisioner "shell" {
     only = ["amazon-ebs.fedora-40-x86_64", "amazon-ebs.fedora-40-aarch64"]
     inline = [
-      "sudo dnf install -y python3.9",
-      "sudo dnf -y update"
+      "sudo dnf install -y python3.10",
     ]
   }
 
diff --git a/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh b/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
index 2bd736501..cf58cc28d 100755
--- a/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
+++ b/tools/appsre-build-worker-packer.sh
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ EOF
 
         if [[ "$item" == templates/packer/ansible/inventory/fedora* ]]; then
             tee -a "$item/group_vars/all.yml" <<EOF
-ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python3.9
+ansible_python_interpreter: /usr/bin/python3.10
 EOF
         fi