diff --git a/dev-env/vagrant/Vagrantfile b/dev-env/vagrant/Vagrantfile
index 18be31a..97b735b 100644
--- a/dev-env/vagrant/Vagrantfile
+++ b/dev-env/vagrant/Vagrantfile
@@ -79,10 +79,12 @@ $package_setup = <<PACKAGE_SETUP
   # libxslt1-dev (config)
   # ostree (update)
   # python3-all-dev (config)
+  # ripgrep (docs)
+  # rsync (docs)
   # ruby-dev (stx-puppet)
   # ruby-rubygems (stx-puppet)
   # tox (all)
-  apt-get install -y bc libffi-dev libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev ostree python3-all-dev ruby-rubygems ruby-dev tox
+  apt-get install -y bc libffi-dev libldap2-dev libsasl2-dev libxml2-dev libxslt1-dev ostree python3-all-dev ripgrep rsync ruby-rubygems ruby-dev tox
 
   # pip install some additional components that are helpful for development
   pip3 install bindep
@@ -164,6 +166,8 @@ $user_setup = <<-'USER_SETUP'
     su - ${DEV_USER} -c "mkdir -p ${PATCHES_DIR}"
     echo "export PATCHES_DIR=${PATCHES_DIR}" >> ${PROFILE}
 
+    # override default editor (nano)
+    echo "export EDITOR=vi" >> ${PROFILE}
 
     # STX_BUILD_HOME is the same as the project workspace
     MY_WORKSPACE="${MY_LOCALDISK}/WORKSPACE/${PROJECT}"
@@ -223,9 +227,9 @@ $repo_setup = <<-'REPO_SETUP'
   su - ${DEV_USER} -c "cd ${MY_REPO_ROOT_DIR};
                        repo sync -j $(nproc --all)"
 
-  # Step 3)  stx-init-env
+  # Step 3)  stx-init-env --rebuild
   date
-  echo "stx-init-env. This can take some time (approximately 6 min)"
+  echo "stx-init-env --rebuild. This can take some time (approximately 10 min)"
   # initialize minikube env
   su - ${DEV_USER} -c "cd ${STX_TOOLS};
                        source import-stx;
@@ -236,6 +240,8 @@ $repo_setup = <<-'REPO_SETUP'
                        stx config --add project.gitemail ${USER_EMAIL};
                        # stx-init-env spams stdout, so we will redirect that command to a log
                        ./stx-init-env > ${MY_WORKSPACE}/stx-init-env.log 2>&1 ;
+                       # we need to initialize normally, before we can rebuild
+                       ./stx-init-env --rebuild > ${MY_WORKSPACE}/stx-init-env.log 2>&1 ;
 
                        # Display the last new lines of the log
                        tail ${MY_WORKSPACE}/stx-init-env.log;
@@ -243,7 +249,7 @@ $repo_setup = <<-'REPO_SETUP'
                        # status should indicate success rather than 'ContainerCreating'
                        stx control status"
 
-  # Step 3) Support minikube auto-start on reboot for this user
+  # Step 4) Support minikube auto-start on reboot for this user
   date
   # override contents of /usr/lib/systemd/system/minikube.service
   MINIKUBE_SERVICE="/usr/lib/systemd/system/minikube.service"
@@ -271,7 +277,7 @@ WantedBy=multi-user.target
   systemctl enable minikube
   systemctl start minikube
 
-  # Step 4) Run the downloader
+  # Step 5) Run the downloader
   date
   echo "Waiting 60 seconds before running the downloader to ensure all containers are running"
   sleep 60