diff --git a/.github/workflows/build_test.yml b/.github/workflows/build_test.yml
index 07209e391d3e..3e3c49beb412 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build_test.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build_test.yml
@@ -232,7 +232,8 @@ jobs:
 
   armv7_simd_test:
     needs: [smoke_test]
-    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
+    # make sure this (20.04) matches the base docker image (focal) below
+    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
     steps:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v2
       with:
@@ -246,10 +247,10 @@ jobs:
         # use x86_64 cross-compiler to speed up the build
         sudo apt update
         sudo apt install -y gcc-arm-linux-gnueabihf g++-arm-linux-gnueabihf
-        docker run --name the_container --interactive -v /:/host arm32v7/ubuntu:latest /bin/bash -c "
+        docker run --name the_container --interactive -v /:/host arm32v7/ubuntu:focal /bin/bash -c "
           apt update &&
           apt install -y git python3 python3-dev python3-pip &&
-          pip3 install cython==0.29.24 setuptools\<49.2.0 hypothesis==6.23.3 pytest==6.2.5 &&
+          pip3 install cython==0.29.28 setuptools\<49.2.0 hypothesis==6.23.3 pytest==6.2.5 &&
           ln -s /host/lib64 /lib64 &&
           ln -s /host/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu /lib/x86_64-linux-gnu &&
           ln -s /host/usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf /usr/arm-linux-gnueabihf &&
diff --git a/azure-pipelines.yml b/azure-pipelines.yml
index be0f0a214fbf..0e7e097db51f 100644
--- a/azure-pipelines.yml
+++ b/azure-pipelines.yml
@@ -80,8 +80,10 @@ stages:
     - script: |
             docker run -v $(pwd):/numpy -e CFLAGS="-msse2 -std=c99 -UNDEBUG" \
             -e F77=gfortran-5 -e F90=gfortran-5 quay.io/pypa/manylinux2014_i686 \
-            /bin/bash -xc "cd numpy && \
-            /opt/python/cp38-cp38/bin/python -mvenv venv &&\
+            /bin/bash -xc " \
+            git config --global --add safe.directory /numpy && \
+            cd /numpy && \
+            /opt/python/cp38-cp38/bin/python -mvenv venv && \
             source venv/bin/activate && \
             target=\$(python3 tools/openblas_support.py) && \
             cp -r \$target/lib/* /usr/lib && \