diff --git a/src/freedombone-image b/src/freedombone-image
index e196d25b..647f2c74 100755
--- a/src/freedombone-image
+++ b/src/freedombone-image
@@ -35,7 +35,14 @@ PROJECT_NAME='freedombone'
 export TEXTDOMAIN=${PROJECT_NAME}-image
 export TEXTDOMAINDIR="/usr/share/locale"
 
+#get the project repo
 PROJECT_REPO="https://github.com/bashrc/${PROJECT_NAME}"
+UTILS_FILES=/usr/share/${PROJECT_NAME}/utils/${PROJECT_NAME}-utils-*
+for f in $UTILS_FILES
+do
+  source $f
+done
+read_config_param PROJECT_REPO
 
 # recommended RAM for virtual machines
 VM_MEMORY='1G'
diff --git a/src/freedombone-upgrade b/src/freedombone-upgrade
index 4ddcf4ea..9b305b4e 100755
--- a/src/freedombone-upgrade
+++ b/src/freedombone-upgrade
@@ -47,13 +47,7 @@ for f in $UTILS_FILES
 do
   source $f
 done
-
-if [ -f $CONFIGURATION_FILE ]; then
-    # read the location of the main project repo
-    if grep -q "PROJECT_REPO" $CONFIGURATION_FILE; then
-        PROJECT_REPO=$(grep "PROJECT_REPO" $CONFIGURATION_FILE | awk -F '=' '{print $2}')
-    fi
-fi
+read_config_param PROJECT_REPO
 
 update-ca-certificates
 
diff --git a/src/freedombone-utils-setup b/src/freedombone-utils-setup
index ba39fd55..dfabf073 100755
--- a/src/freedombone-utils-setup
+++ b/src/freedombone-utils-setup
@@ -257,6 +257,9 @@ function setup_firewall {
 }
 
 function setup_utils {
+    read_config_param "PROJECT_REPO"
+    write_config_param "PROJECT_REPO" "$PROJECT_REPO"
+
     function_check create_completion_file
     create_completion_file