diff --git a/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/config b/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/config
index 209e37653..ff94b83d6 100644
--- a/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/config
+++ b/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/config
@@ -5,6 +5,9 @@
 	logallrefupdates = true
 	ignorecase = true
 	precomposeunicode = true
+[branch "master"]
+	remote = origin
+	merge = refs/heads/master
 [remote "origin"]
   url = git@github.com:atom/some-repo-i-guess.git
   fetch = +refs/heads/*:refs/remotes/origin/*
diff --git a/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/refs/remotes/origin/master b/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/refs/remotes/origin/master
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..3507a23dc
--- /dev/null
+++ b/spec/fixtures/git/repo-with-submodules/git.git/refs/remotes/origin/master
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+d2b0ad9cbc6f6c4372e8956e5cc5af771b2342e5