diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index ac1272ff59f4..994d9c446ecc 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,8 +1,7 @@
 version: ~> 1.0 # needed for imports
 import: scala/scala-dev:travis/default.yml
 
-dist: bionic  # for generating spec PDF; see #7432
-
+dist: xenial  # GPG stuff breaks on bionic; scala/scala-dev#764
 language: scala
 
 stages:
@@ -100,6 +99,8 @@ jobs:
 
       - stage: build
         name: language spec (Jekyll)
+        # wkhtmltopdf requires libssl1.1, which we can't install on xenial
+        dist: bionic
         language: ruby
         install:
           - ruby -v