diff --git a/ci/install-build-deps.sh b/ci/install-build-deps.sh
index c9cfb7f8..5fef79f3 100755
--- a/ci/install-build-deps.sh
+++ b/ci/install-build-deps.sh
@@ -32,16 +32,16 @@ case "$ID-$VERSION_ID" in
     $SUDO_CMD sh -c "echo 'deb http://download.opensuse.org/repositories/home:/phiwag:/edatools/xUbuntu_$VERSION_ID/ /' > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/edatools.list"
     $SUDO_CMD apt-get update
 
-    # Uninstall distribution-provided version to get a newer version through pip
-    $SUDO_CMD apt-get remove -y python3-yaml
-
     # Packaged dependencies
+    # Install python3-yaml through apt to get a version with libyaml bindings,
+    # which is significantly faster than the pure Python version.
     $SUDO_CMD apt-get install -y \
         device-tree-compiler \
         python3 \
         python3-pip \
         python3-setuptools \
         python3-wheel \
+        python3-yaml \
         srecord \
         zlib1g-dev \
         git \
@@ -64,7 +64,7 @@ case "$ID-$VERSION_ID" in
       # then fails to run.
       $SUDO_CMD pip3 install -U pip setuptools
 
-      $SUDO_CMD pip3 install -U -r python-requirements.txt
+      $SUDO_CMD pip3 install -r python-requirements.txt
 
       # Install Verible
       mkdir -p build/verible