diff --git a/Dockerfile b/Dockerfile
index f16b60a34..d859ffb3c 100755
--- a/Dockerfile
+++ b/Dockerfile
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ COPY --from=redis /usr/local/ /usr/local/
 COPY ./opt/ opt/
 COPY ./test/test_requirements.txt test/
 
-RUN PIP=19.3.1 FORCE=1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
+RUN PIP=1 FORCE=1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
 RUN ./opt/system-setup.py
 
 ARG DEPS_ARGS=""
diff --git a/Dockerfile.gpu b/Dockerfile.gpu
index b0be68cff..6d770cfbf 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.gpu
+++ b/Dockerfile.gpu
@@ -37,7 +37,7 @@ COPY --from=redis /usr/local/ /usr/local/
 COPY ./opt/ opt/
 COPY ./test/test_requirements.txt test/
 
-RUN PIP=19.3.1 FORCE=1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
+RUN PIP=1 FORCE=1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
 RUN ./opt/system-setup.py
 
 ARG DEPS_ARGS=""
diff --git a/Dockerfile.gpu-test b/Dockerfile.gpu-test
index d4accce22..be2dfd087 100644
--- a/Dockerfile.gpu-test
+++ b/Dockerfile.gpu-test
@@ -29,8 +29,7 @@ COPY --from=redis /usr/local/ /usr/local/
 COPY ./opt/ opt/
 COPY ./test/test_requirements.txt test/
 
-RUN PIP=19.3.1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
-RUN python3 -m pip install virtualenv
+RUN PIP=1 VENV=1 FORCE=1 ./opt/readies/bin/getpy3
 
 RUN set -e ;\
 	python3 -m virtualenv venv --system-site-packages ;\
diff --git a/opt/readies b/opt/readies
index eab95101e..2d6bdef27 160000
--- a/opt/readies
+++ b/opt/readies
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit eab95101ea93261bd35792260711a2b08ad62dae
+Subproject commit 2d6bdef2729b5d730ec89d227251fd5d9580bc00
diff --git a/opt/system-setup.py b/opt/system-setup.py
index ce0d38a54..873d42253 100755
--- a/opt/system-setup.py
+++ b/opt/system-setup.py
@@ -19,7 +19,9 @@ def common_first(self):
         self.install_downloaders()
         self.setup_pip()
         self.pip_install("wheel virtualenv")
-        self.pip_install("setuptools --upgrade")
+        # if self.osnick == 'xenial': 
+        #     self.pip_install("setuptools --upgrade")
+        #     self.pip_install("-IU --force-reinstall setuptools")
 
         if self.os == 'linux':
             self.install("ca-certificates")
@@ -27,7 +29,6 @@ def common_first(self):
         self.install("coreutils") # for realpath
 
     def debian_compat(self):
-        self.pip_install("-IU --force-reinstall setuptools")
         self.install("gawk")
         self.install("build-essential cmake")
         self.install("python3-regex")