diff --git a/.cirrus.yml b/.cirrus.yml
index 98a2ac533a..b2067d3e68 100644
--- a/.cirrus.yml
+++ b/.cirrus.yml
@@ -42,9 +42,9 @@ coverage_environment_template: &COVERAGE_ENVIRONMENT_TEMPLATE
 
 # Linux
 task:
-  name: Ubuntu 16.04 $TASK_NAME_SUFFIX
+  name: Ubuntu 18.04 $TASK_NAME_SUFFIX
   container:
-    image: ubuntu:16.04
+    image: ubuntu:18.04
     cpu: 4
     memory: 8G
   timeout_in: 60m
@@ -57,7 +57,7 @@ task:
         << : *COVERAGE_ENVIRONMENT_TEMPLATE
       - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x86, DMD (bootstrap)
         MODEL: 32
-        HOST_DMD: dmd-2.079.0
+        HOST_DMD: dmd-2.097.1
       - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x64, DMD (latest)
       # Enable this to replace coverage tests on CircleCI
       # - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x64, DMD (coverage)
@@ -65,9 +65,7 @@ task:
       - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x64, DMD (bootstrap)
         HOST_DMD: dmd-2.079.0
       - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x64, LDC
-        # Starting from LDC v1.27.0, a symbol for GLIBC_2.27 is required,
-        # which doesn't work on 16.04 anymore.
-        HOST_DC: ldc-1.26.0 #TODO: Update to HOST_DMD when support for HOST_DC is removed
+        HOST_DC: ldc #TODO: Update to HOST_DMD when support for HOST_DC is removed
       - TASK_NAME_SUFFIX: x64, GDC
         HOST_DMD: gdmd-9
   << : *COMMON_STEPS_TEMPLATE
diff --git a/ci.sh b/ci.sh
index 125746a0a5..db92af71d7 100755
--- a/ci.sh
+++ b/ci.sh
@@ -22,13 +22,15 @@ if [ -z ${CI_DFLAGS+x} ] ; then CI_DFLAGS=""; fi
 CURL_USER_AGENT="DMD-CI $(curl --version | head -n 1)"
 build_path=generated/$OS_NAME/release/$MODEL
 
-# use faster ld.gold linker on linux
 if [ "$OS_NAME" == "linux" ]; then
-    mkdir -p linker
-    rm -f linker/ld
-    ln -s /usr/bin/ld.gold linker/ld
+    # use faster ld.gold linker on x86_64-linux
+    if [ "$MODEL" == "64" ]; then
+        mkdir -p linker
+        rm -f linker/ld
+        ln -s /usr/bin/ld.gold linker/ld
+        export PATH="$PWD/linker:$PATH"
+    fi
     NM="nm --print-size"
-    export PATH="$PWD/linker:$PATH"
 else
     NM=nm
 fi
diff --git a/cirrusci.sh b/cirrusci.sh
index 7520e53a42..ffcb0b6ad3 100755
--- a/cirrusci.sh
+++ b/cirrusci.sh
@@ -15,10 +15,11 @@ if [ ! -z ${HOST_DC+x} ] ; then HOST_DMD=${HOST_DC}; fi
 if [ -z ${HOST_DMD+x} ] ; then echo "Variable 'HOST_DMD' needs to be set."; exit 1; fi
 
 if [ "$OS_NAME" == "linux" ]; then
-  packages="git-core make g++ gdb curl libcurl3 tzdata zip unzip xz-utils"
+  export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
+  packages="git-core make g++ gdb curl libcurl4 tzdata zip unzip xz-utils"
   if [ "$MODEL" == "32" ]; then
     dpkg --add-architecture i386
-    packages="$packages g++-multilib libcurl3-gnutls:i386"
+    packages="$packages g++-multilib libcurl4:i386"
   fi
   if [ "${HOST_DMD:0:4}" == "gdmd" ]; then
     # ci.sh uses `sudo add-apt-repository ...` to add a PPA repo