diff --git a/src/app/rpmostree-builtin-shlib-backend.cxx b/src/app/rpmostree-builtin-shlib-backend.cxx
index 6fb4bfa6..a674e97d 100644
--- a/src/app/rpmostree-builtin-shlib-backend.cxx
+++ b/src/app/rpmostree-builtin-shlib-backend.cxx
@@ -99,6 +99,7 @@ rpmostree_builtin_shlib_backend (int             argc,
 
   if (g_str_equal (arg, "get-basearch"))
     {
+        ret = g_variant_new_string ("x86_64");    
 //      g_autoptr(DnfContext) ctx = dnf_context_new ();
 //      ret = g_variant_new_string (dnf_context_get_base_arch (ctx));
     }
diff --git a/src/app/rpmostree-compose-builtin-tree.cxx b/src/app/rpmostree-compose-builtin-tree.cxx
index 5548741b..9f6dcc9d 100644
--- a/src/app/rpmostree-compose-builtin-tree.cxx
+++ b/src/app/rpmostree-compose-builtin-tree.cxx
@@ -689,7 +689,7 @@ rpm_ostree_compose_context_new (const char    *treefile_pathstr,
     }
 
   /* FIXME refactor things to break the dependency of DnfContext -> arch -> treefile */
-  std::string arch;
+  std::string arch = "x86_64";
   {
 //      g_autoptr(DnfContext) ctx = dnf_context_new ();
 //      arch = dnf_context_get_base_arch (ctx);