diff --git a/cookbooks/basics/recipes/default.rb b/cookbooks/basics/recipes/default.rb
index c7a4c88..fea0d1b 100644
--- a/cookbooks/basics/recipes/default.rb
+++ b/cookbooks/basics/recipes/default.rb
@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-# update environment
-execute "yum update -y"
-
 # enable EPEL repository by default
 package 'epel-release'
 
diff --git a/cookbooks/colab/recipes/default.rb b/cookbooks/colab/recipes/default.rb
index a6c8c08..4ef5394 100644
--- a/cookbooks/colab/recipes/default.rb
+++ b/cookbooks/colab/recipes/default.rb
@@ -12,7 +12,15 @@ if node['platform'] == 'centos'
   end
 end
 
-package 'colab'
+# FIXME should not be needed; colab should depend on the right version of
+# colab-deps
+package 'colab-deps' do
+  action :upgrade
+end
+
+package 'colab' do
+  action :upgrade
+end
 
 directory '/etc/colab' do
   owner  'root'
diff --git a/cookbooks/noosfero/recipes/default.rb b/cookbooks/noosfero/recipes/default.rb
index cead542..e0d4e95 100644
--- a/cookbooks/noosfero/recipes/default.rb
+++ b/cookbooks/noosfero/recipes/default.rb
@@ -5,7 +5,14 @@ if node['platform'] == 'centos'
   end
 end
 
-package 'noosfero'
+# FIXME should not be needed. noosfero should depend on the right version
+package 'noosfero-deps' do
+  action :upgrade
+end
+
+package 'noosfero' do
+  action :upgrade
+end
 
 template '/etc/noosfero/database.yml' do
   owner 'noosfero'
@@ -23,7 +30,9 @@ execute 'noosfero:schema' do
   notifies :restart, 'service[noosfero]'
 end
 
-package 'noosfero-spb'
+package 'noosfero-spb' do
+  action :upgrade
+end
 
 plugins = [
   'breadcrumbs',
--
libgit2 0.21.2