diff --git a/pkg/daemon/daemon.go b/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
index 7926206d23..7671561161 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/daemon.go
@@ -211,6 +211,10 @@ func New(
 
 	// Only pull the osImageURL from OSTree when we are on RHCOS or FCOS
 	if os.IsCoreOSVariant() {
+		err := nodeUpdaterClient.Initialize()
+		if err != nil {
+			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error initializing rpm-ostree: %v", err)
+		}
 		osImageURL, osVersion, err = nodeUpdaterClient.GetBootedOSImageURL()
 		if err != nil {
 			return nil, fmt.Errorf("error reading osImageURL from rpm-ostree: %v", err)
diff --git a/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree.go b/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree.go
index 6f334477b3..f35ecaccdd 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree.go
@@ -27,6 +27,7 @@ const (
 // https://github.com/projectatomic/rpm-ostree/blob/bce966a9812df141d38e3290f845171ec745aa4e/src/daemon/rpmostreed-deployment-utils.c#L227
 type rpmOstreeState struct {
 	Deployments []RpmOstreeDeployment
+	Transaction *[]string
 }
 
 // RpmOstreeDeployment represents a single deployment on a node
@@ -60,6 +61,7 @@ type imageInspection struct {
 // NodeUpdaterClient is an interface describing how to interact with the host
 // around content deployment
 type NodeUpdaterClient interface {
+	Initialize() error
 	GetStatus() (string, error)
 	GetBootedOSImageURL() (string, string, error)
 	Rebase(string, string) (bool, error)
@@ -77,8 +79,14 @@ func NewNodeUpdaterClient() NodeUpdaterClient {
 	return &RpmOstreeClient{}
 }
 
-// GetBootedDeployment returns the current deployment found
-func (r *RpmOstreeClient) GetBootedDeployment() (*RpmOstreeDeployment, error) {
+// Synchronously invoke rpm-ostree, writing its stdout to our stdout,
+// and gathering stderr into a buffer which will be returned in err
+// in case of error.
+func runRpmOstree(args ...string) error {
+	return runCmdSync("rpm-ostree", args...)
+}
+
+func (r *RpmOstreeClient) loadStatus() (*rpmOstreeState, error) {
 	var rosState rpmOstreeState
 	output, err := runGetOut("rpm-ostree", "status", "--json")
 	if err != nil {
@@ -89,7 +97,53 @@ func (r *RpmOstreeClient) GetBootedDeployment() (*RpmOstreeDeployment, error) {
 		return nil, errors.Wrapf(err, "failed to parse `rpm-ostree status --json` output (%s)", truncate(string(output), 30))
 	}
 
-	for _, deployment := range rosState.Deployments {
+	return &rosState, nil
+}
+
+func (r *RpmOstreeClient) Initialize() error {
+	// This replicates https://github.com/coreos/rpm-ostree/pull/2945
+	// and can be removed when we have a new enough rpm-ostree with
+	// that PR.
+	err := runCmdSync("systemctl", "start", "rpm-ostreed")
+	if err != nil {
+		// If this fails for some reason, let's dump the unit status
+		// into our logs to aid future debugging.
+		cmd := exec.Command("systemctl", "status", "rpm-ostreed")
+		cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
+		cmd.Stderr = os.Stderr
+		_ = cmd.Run()
+		return err
+	}
+
+	status, err := r.loadStatus()
+	if err != nil {
+		return err
+	}
+
+	// If there's an active transaction when the MCD starts up,
+	// it's possible that we hit
+	// https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1982389
+	// This is fixed upstream, but we need a newer RHEL for that,
+	// so let's just restart the service as a workaround.
+	if status.Transaction != nil {
+		glog.Warningf("Detected active transaction during daemon startup, restarting to clear it")
+		err := runCmdSync("systemctl", "restart", "rpm-ostreed")
+		if err != nil {
+			return err
+		}
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
+// GetBootedDeployment returns the current deployment found
+func (r *RpmOstreeClient) GetBootedDeployment() (*RpmOstreeDeployment, error) {
+	status, err := r.loadStatus()
+	if err != nil {
+		return nil, err
+	}
+
+	for _, deployment := range status.Deployments {
 		if deployment.Booted {
 			deployment := deployment
 			return &deployment, nil
@@ -245,10 +299,7 @@ func (r *RpmOstreeClient) Rebase(imgURL, osImageContentDir string) (changed bool
 	args := []string{"rebase", "--experimental", fmt.Sprintf("%s:%s", repo, ostreeCsum),
 		"--custom-origin-url", customURL, "--custom-origin-description", "Managed by machine-config-operator"}
 
-	var out []byte
-	if out, err = runGetOut("rpm-ostree", args...); err != nil {
-		// capture stdout output as well in case of error
-		err = errors.Wrapf(err, "with stdout output: %v", string(out))
+	if err = runRpmOstree(args...); err != nil {
 		return
 	}
 
diff --git a/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree_test.go b/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree_test.go
index 2c74bc71cb..6159d3d2bf 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree_test.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/rpm-ostree_test.go
@@ -20,6 +20,10 @@ type RpmOstreeClientMock struct {
 	GetBootedOSImageURLReturns []GetBootedOSImageURLReturn
 }
 
+func (r RpmOstreeClientMock) Initialize() error {
+	return nil
+}
+
 // GetBootedOSImageURL implements a test version of RpmOStreeClients GetBootedOSImageURL.
 // It returns an OsImageURL, Version, and Error as defined in GetBootedOSImageURLReturns in order.
 func (r RpmOstreeClientMock) GetBootedOSImageURL() (string, string, error) {
diff --git a/pkg/daemon/update.go b/pkg/daemon/update.go
index 1f29ec719e..b7a020253f 100644
--- a/pkg/daemon/update.go
+++ b/pkg/daemon/update.go
@@ -1962,6 +1962,22 @@ PENDING=%d`, pendingStateMessageID, pending.GetName(), dn.bootID, isPending))
 	return logger.CombinedOutput()
 }
 
+// Synchronously invoke a command, writing its stdout to our stdout,
+// and gathering stderr into a buffer which will be returned in err
+// in case of error.
+func runCmdSync(cmdName string, args ...string) error {
+	glog.Infof("Running: %s %s", cmdName, strings.Join(args, " "))
+	cmd := exec.Command(cmdName, args...)
+	var stderr bytes.Buffer
+	cmd.Stdout = os.Stdout
+	cmd.Stderr = &stderr
+	if err := cmd.Run(); err != nil {
+		return fmt.Errorf("error running %s %s: %s: %w", cmdName, strings.Join(args, " "), string(stderr.Bytes()), err)
+	}
+
+	return nil
+}
+
 // Log a message to the systemd journal as well as our stdout
 func (dn *Daemon) logSystem(format string, a ...interface{}) {
 	message := fmt.Sprintf(format, a...)