diff --git a/buildserver/provision-android-sdk b/buildserver/provision-android-sdk
index 56f72e06..e5a4202a 100644
--- a/buildserver/provision-android-sdk
+++ b/buildserver/provision-android-sdk
@@ -34,6 +34,8 @@ disabled="
 @disabled@https\://dl.google.com/android/repository/sys-img/google_apis/sys-img.xml=disabled
 "
 test -d ${HOME}/.android || mkdir ${HOME}/.android
+# there are currently zero user repos
+echo 'count=0' > ${HOME}/.android/repositories.cfg
 for line in $disabled; do
     echo $line >> ${HOME}/.android/sites-settings.cfg
 done
@@ -85,3 +87,8 @@ find $ANDROID_HOME/ -type f -executable -print0 | xargs -0 chmod a+x
 # allow gradle to install newer build-tools versions
 chgrp vagrant $ANDROID_HOME/build-tools
 chmod g+w $ANDROID_HOME/build-tools
+
+# allow gradle/sdkmanager to install into the new m2repository
+test -d $ANDROID_HOME/extras/m2repository || mkdir -p $ANDROID_HOME/extras/m2repository
+find $ANDROID_HOME/extras/m2repository -type d | xargs chgrp vagrant
+find $ANDROID_HOME/extras/m2repository -type d | xargs chmod g+w
diff --git a/buildserver/provision-apt-get-install b/buildserver/provision-apt-get-install
index 8edefb50..996454e8 100644
--- a/buildserver/provision-apt-get-install
+++ b/buildserver/provision-apt-get-install
@@ -6,14 +6,19 @@ set -x
 
 debian_mirror=$1
 
-sed -i "s,http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/,${debian_mirror},g" /etc/apt/sources.list
-
 printf 'APT::Install-Recommends "0";\nAPT::Install-Suggests "0";\n' \
        > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99no-install-recommends
 
 printf 'APT::Acquire::Retries "20";\n' \
        > /etc/apt/apt.conf.d/99acquire-retries
 
+if echo $debian_mirror | grep '^https' 2>&1 > /dev/null; then
+    apt-get -y update
+    apt-get -y install apt-transport-https
+fi
+
+sed -i "s,http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/,${debian_mirror},g" /etc/apt/sources.list
+
 if grep --quiet jessie /etc/apt/sources.list; then
     echo "deb $debian_mirror jessie-backports main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/backports.list
     echo "deb $debian_mirror testing main" > /etc/apt/sources.list.d/testing.list
diff --git a/jenkins-build-makebuildserver b/jenkins-build-makebuildserver
index 430b27a3..6d459fa5 100755
--- a/jenkins-build-makebuildserver
+++ b/jenkins-build-makebuildserver
@@ -46,7 +46,7 @@ export VAGRANT_HOME=$WORKSPACE/vagrant.d
 mkdir $VAGRANT_HOME
 
 cd $WORKSPACE
-echo "debian_mirror = 'http://ftp.uk.debian.org/debian/'" > $WORKSPACE/makebuildserver.config.py
+echo "debian_mirror = 'https://deb.debian.org/debian/'" > $WORKSPACE/makebuildserver.config.py
 echo "boot_timeout = 1200" >> $WORKSPACE/makebuildserver.config.py
 echo "apt_package_cache = True" >> $WORKSPACE/makebuildserver.config.py
 ./makebuildserver --verbose --clean