diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 6985a05d39ae577307d71bfdc0aaa169b40b1eb9..57e0e4fb7d6d07a39b450e3eb4a4c705a5b34ce5 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -230,7 +230,7 @@ generate-pipeline:
     name: ${CI_REGISTRY_IMAGE}/${BASE_IMAGE}:${INTERNAL_TAG}
     entrypoint: [""]
   before_script:
-    - apt-get install -yqq python3-boto3
+    - apt-get update -yqq && apt-get install -yqq python3-boto3
     - git clone https://github.com/${SPACK_ORGREPO}.git spack
     - git -C spack checkout ${SPACK_VERSION}
     - . "./spack/share/spack/setup-env.sh"