diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 2fa2f2a203c579a5a9b0c3dd63c14c32b53c8381..be72cb3bdf1d17a2dbb1caacc0fad3ea40e7243f 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -95,7 +95,7 @@ config:unstable:
       - config/Dockerfile
       
 release:stable:
-  stage: main
+  stage: slim
   tags:
      - silicon
   only:
@@ -109,7 +109,7 @@ release:stable:
      - make login
      - make release-cached
 release:testing:
-  stage: main
+  stage: slim
   tags:
      - silicon
   only:
@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ release:testing:
      - make login
      - make staging-cached
 release:unstable:
-  stage: main
+  stage: slim
   tags:
      - silicon
   except:
diff --git a/containers/release/Dockerfile.in b/containers/release/Dockerfile.in
index 6944cb47ce44dc904b487d0e4ebad9e948e617cc..5d97f30befe52ac30d821c32f27055b14f4daf71 100644
--- a/containers/release/Dockerfile.in
+++ b/containers/release/Dockerfile.in
@@ -28,11 +28,15 @@ ENV DOCKERFILE_DISTRO=ubuntu          \
 
 ## TODO: move this to upstream, as we should have ssh available in
 ## any dev container
+## poppler-utils for pdftoppm, is this is right now now supported by the
+## Spack version
 RUN apt-get -yqq update \
  && apt-get -yqq install --no-install-recommends \
         ghostscript \
         gv \
+        poppler-utils \
  && apt-get -yqq purge lmod \
+ && apt-get autoremove \
  && rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
 ## Copy over files from builder