diff --git a/tests/kola/rpm-ostree/kernel-replace b/tests/kola/rpm-ostree/kernel-replace
index 3c2215ee6..31480edc0 100755
--- a/tests/kola/rpm-ostree/kernel-replace
+++ b/tests/kola/rpm-ostree/kernel-replace
@@ -71,46 +71,44 @@ build_base_ociarchive() {
 }
 
 build_derived_ociarchive() {
+    # do the container build in a temporary context directory
+    contextdir=$(mktemp -d)
+    pushd ${contextdir}
+
+    case "$OS_ID" in
+      rhcos|scos|rhel|centos)
+        c9s_mirror="https://mirror.stream.centos.org/9-stream/BaseOS/${arch}/os"
+        # we're probably already on CentOS and running the latest kernel. so
+        # here we need to instead pick whatever the latest that's *not* the same
+        dnf_opts="--repofrompath=tmp,"${c9s_mirror}" --disablerepo=* --enablerepo tmp"
+        kver=$(dnf repoquery $dnf_opts kernel --qf '%{EVR}' | \
+                  grep -v "$(rpm -q kernel --qf '%{EVR}')" | tail -n1)
+        # For some reason for now `kernel-modules-extra` doesn't resolve so we need to explicitly ask for it here
+        dnf download $dnf_opts --resolve "kernel-${kver}" "kernel-modules-extra-${kver}"
+        ;;
+      fedora)
+        VERSION_ID=$(. /etc/os-release; echo $VERSION_ID)
+        previous_version_id=$((VERSION_ID - 1))
+        dnf download --releasever "${previous_version_id}" --resolve \
+          --disablerepo=* --enablerepo=updates --enablerepo=fedora kernel
+        kver=$(rpm -qp --qf '%{EVR}' ./kernel-core*rpm)
+        ;;
+      *)
+        echo "Unknown OS_ID: ${OS_ID}"
+        exit 1
+        ;;
+    esac
+
     # we only want to query repos once but need the info on multiple boots, so write out state to /var
-    if [ ! -f /var/kola-kernel.evr ]; then
-      case "$OS_ID" in
-        rhcos|scos|rhel|centos)
-          c9s_mirror="https://mirror.stream.centos.org/9-stream/BaseOS/${arch}/os"
-          # we're probably already on CentOS and running the latest kernel. so
-          # here we need to instead pick whatever the latest that's *not* the same
-          kver=$(dnf repoquery kernel --qf '%{EVR}' --repofrompath=tmp,"${c9s_mirror}" --disablerepo '*' --enablerepo tmp | \
-                    grep -v "$(rpm -q kernel --qf '%{EVR}')" | tail -n1)
-          kver="${kver}.${arch}"
-          url="${c9s_mirror}/Packages/kernel"
-          ;;
-        fedora)
-          # to get the version to use: koji latest-pkg f40 kernel
-          # XXX: once we can rely on dnf in FCOS, use repoquery also here
-          kver="6.8.5-301.fc40.${arch}"
-          url="https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//packages/kernel/6.8.5/301.fc40/${arch}/kernel"
-          ;;
-        *)
-          echo "Unknown OS_ID: ${OS_ID}"
-          exit 1
-          ;;
-      esac
-      echo "$kver" > /var/kola-kernel.evr
-      echo "$url" > /var/kola-kernel.url
-    else
-      kver=$(cat /var/kola-kernel.evr)
-      url=$(cat /var/kola-kernel.url)
-    fi
+    echo "$kver" > /var/kola-kernel.evr
 
-    td=$(mktemp -d)
-    pushd ${td}
     cat > Containerfile << EOF
 FROM $imagespec
-RUN rpm-ostree override replace \
-    $url-{,core-,modules-,modules-core-,modules-extra-}$kver.rpm && \
+RUN rpm-ostree override replace /tmp/buildcontext/*rpm && \
     rpm-ostree cleanup -m && \
     ostree container commit
 EOF
-    podman build --net=host -t "${derived_imagespec}" --squash .
+    podman build --volume $PWD:/tmp/buildcontext:z -t "${derived_imagespec}" --squash .
     popd
 }
 
@@ -141,7 +139,8 @@ case "${AUTOPKGTEST_REBOOT_MARK:-}" in
     /tmp/autopkgtest-reboot 2
     ;;
   2)
-    un=$(uname -r)
+    kver="$(cat /var/kola-kernel.evr).${arch}" # expected
+    un=$(uname -r)                             # detected
     if test "$un" != "$kver"; then
       echo "Expected kernel $kver but found $un"
       exit 1