diff --git a/roles/bkernel/files/bkernel-site-defaults.cfg b/roles/bkernel/files/bkernel-site-defaults.cfg
index d06c14dcf2..83c4c84068 100644
--- a/roles/bkernel/files/bkernel-site-defaults.cfg
+++ b/roles/bkernel/files/bkernel-site-defaults.cfg
@@ -3,3 +3,5 @@ config_opts['plugin_conf']['bind_mount_opts']['dirs'].append(('/var/run/pesign',
 config_opts['plugin_conf']['package_state_enable'] = False
 config_opts['macros']['%bugurl'] = 'https://bugz.fedoraproject.org/%name'
 config_opts['nosync'] = True
+config_opts['nosync_force'] = True
+config_opts['environment']['LANG'] = os.environ.setdefault('LANG', 'C.UTF-8')