diff --git a/.github/workflows/ci.yml b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
index ae5e2562f..e7cef2231 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -23,6 +23,7 @@ on:
 jobs:
   build:
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.runner || 'ubuntu-22.04' }}
+    container: ${{ matrix.container }}
     name: ${{ matrix.name }}
     strategy:
       fail-fast: false
@@ -40,7 +41,7 @@ jobs:
             name: Valgrind
           - backend: odbc
             # There are many leak reports under Ubuntu 22.04, see #1008.
-            runner: ubuntu-18.04
+            container: ubuntu:18.04
             name: ODBC
           - backend: firebird
             name: Firebird
diff --git a/scripts/ci/common.sh b/scripts/ci/common.sh
index c1864ea28..30ffb787f 100644
--- a/scripts/ci/common.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/common.sh
@@ -80,10 +80,12 @@ tmstamp()
     echo -n "[$(date '+%H:%M:%S')]" ;
 }
 
+SOCI_APT_OPTIONS='-q -y -o=Dpkg::Use-Pty=0 --no-install-recommends'
+
 run_apt()
 {
     # Disable some (but not all) output.
-    sudo apt-get -q -y -o=Dpkg::Use-Pty=0 "$@"
+    sudo apt-get $SOCI_APT_OPTIONS "$@"
 }
 
 run_make()
diff --git a/scripts/ci/install.sh b/scripts/ci/install.sh
index 47bb4860a..86286dd3f 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/install.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/install.sh
@@ -9,6 +9,15 @@
 
 case "$(uname)" in
     Linux)
+        # Install the bare minimum for the rest to work if we're running on a
+        # minimum system.
+        if ! command -v lsb_release > /dev/null; then
+            # We can't use run_apt here because it uses sudo which may also be
+            # not available yet.
+            apt-get $SOCI_APT_OPTIONS update
+            apt-get $SOCI_APT_OPTIONS install build-essential lsb-release sudo
+        fi
+
         packages_to_install="cmake libc6-dbg"
         if [ "${WITH_BOOST}" != OFF ]; then
             packages_to_install="$packages_to_install  libboost-dev libboost-date-time-dev"
diff --git a/scripts/ci/install_odbc.sh b/scripts/ci/install_odbc.sh
index 1c11505d1..b76ccacc9 100755
--- a/scripts/ci/install_odbc.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/install_odbc.sh
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ run_apt remove \
 run_apt install \
     tar bzip2 \
     unixodbc unixodbc-dbgsym unixodbc-dev \
-    odbc-postgresql odbc-postgresql-dbgsym
+    odbc-postgresql odbc-postgresql-dbgsym postgresql
 
 # Use full path to the driver library to avoid errors like
 # [01000][unixODBC][Driver Manager]Can't open lib 'psqlodbca.so' : file not found