diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index f3796251..046c1488 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -25,14 +25,14 @@ jobs:
     # Steps represent a sequence of tasks that will be executed as part of the job
     steps:
       # Checks-out your repository under $GITHUB_WORKSPACE, so your job can access it
-      - uses: actions/checkout@v2
+      - uses: actions/checkout@v3
 
       - name: Install required dpkg packages
         run: sudo apt-get install libxslt1-dev bzr subversion mercurial
 
       - name: Generate default locales
         run: |
-          sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"
+          sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install tzdata locales -y && sudo locale-gen "en_US.UTF-8"
           sudo dpkg-reconfigure locales
           sudo update-locale "LANG=en_US.UTF-8"
           sudo update-locale "LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8"
diff --git a/tests/gitfixtures.py b/tests/gitfixtures.py
index 11136a54..27604ac9 100644
--- a/tests/gitfixtures.py
+++ b/tests/gitfixtures.py
@@ -16,6 +16,14 @@ class GitFixtures(Fixtures):
     def init(self):
         self.user_name  = 'test'
         self.user_email = 'test@test.com'
+
+        tmpdir = os.path.join(os.path.dirname(
+            os.path.abspath(__file__)), 'tmp')
+        gitconfig = os.path.join(tmpdir, '.gitconfig')
+        os.environ["GIT_CONFIG_GLOBAL"] = gitconfig
+        self.safe_run('config --global protocol.file.allow always')
+        self.safe_run('config --global commit.gpgsign false')
+
         self.create_repo(self.repo_path)
         self.wdir = self.repo_path
         self.submodules_path = self.container_dir + '/submodules'
@@ -40,7 +48,6 @@ def create_repo(self, repo_path):
         self.safe_run('init')
         self.safe_run('config user.name  ' + self.user_name)
         self.safe_run('config user.email ' + self.user_email)
-        self.safe_run('config commit.gpgsign false')
         print("created repo %s" % repo_path)
 
     def get_metadata(self, fmt):
diff --git a/tests/utils.py b/tests/utils.py
index 4b216917..856163e0 100644
--- a/tests/utils.py
+++ b/tests/utils.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import io
 import shutil
 import subprocess
+import sys
 import six
 
 
@@ -22,12 +23,32 @@ def mkfreshdir(path):
     os.makedirs(path)
     os.chdir(cwd)
 
+def check_locale(loc):
+    try:
+        aloc_tmp = subprocess.check_output(['locale', '-a'])
+    except AttributeError:
+        aloc_tmp, _ = subprocess.Popen(['locale', '-a'],
+                                       stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+                                       stderr=subprocess.STDOUT).communicate()
+    aloc = {}
+
+    for tloc in aloc_tmp.split(b'\n'):
+        aloc[tloc] = 1
+
+    for tloc in loc:
+        print("Checking .... %s"%tloc, file=sys.stderr)
+        try:
+            if aloc[tloc.encode()]:
+                return tloc
+        except KeyError:
+            pass
+
+    return 'C'
 
 def run_cmd(cmd):
-    os.putenv('LANG', 'C.utf-8')
-    os.putenv('LC_ALL', 'C.utf-8')
-    os.environ['LANG'] = 'C.utf-8'
-    os.environ['LC_ALL'] = 'C.utf-8'
+    use_locale = check_locale(["en_US.utf8", 'C.utf8'])
+    os.environ['LANG']   = use_locale
+    os.environ['LC_ALL'] = use_locale
     if six.PY3:
         cmd = cmd.encode('UTF-8')
     proc = subprocess.Popen(