diff --git a/jjb/pipeline/voltha-physical-functional-tests.groovy b/jjb/pipeline/voltha-physical-functional-tests.groovy
index 549101f..f4ca083 100644
--- a/jjb/pipeline/voltha-physical-functional-tests.groovy
+++ b/jjb/pipeline/voltha-physical-functional-tests.groovy
@@ -23,7 +23,7 @@
     label "${params.buildNode}"
   }
   options {
-    timeout(time: 60, unit: 'MINUTES')
+    timeout(time: 90, unit: 'MINUTES')
   }
 
   environment {
diff --git a/packer/provision/basebuild.sh b/packer/provision/basebuild.sh
index 19e3876..c433d2d 100644
--- a/packer/provision/basebuild.sh
+++ b/packer/provision/basebuild.sh
@@ -19,9 +19,6 @@
     apt-get update
     apt-get install -y apt-transport-https software-properties-common
 
-    # set up ansible repo
-    apt-add-repository -y ppa:ansible/ansible
-
     # set up git backports repo
     add-apt-repository -y  ppa:git-core/ppa
 
@@ -87,7 +84,6 @@
     apt-get install -y \
         "docker-ce=17.06*" \
         apt-transport-https \
-        ansible \
         build-essential \
         bzip2 \
         curl \
@@ -97,7 +93,6 @@
         git \
         golang-1.12-go \
         graphviz \
-        httpie \
         jq \
         kafkacat \
         "kubeadm=1.12.7-*" \
@@ -110,14 +105,8 @@
         maven \
         nodejs \
         python \
-        python-certifi \
-        python-cryptography \
         python-dev \
-        python-idna \
-        python-netaddr \
-        python-openssl \
         python-pip \
-        python-urllib3 \
         python3-dev \
         ruby \
         screen \
@@ -127,33 +116,57 @@
         zip
         # end of apt-get install list
 
+    # remove apt installed incompatible python tools
+    # NOTE: Python3 versions are not removed, as cloud-init depends on them
+    apt-get -y remove \
+      python-enum34 \
+      python-cryptography \
+      python-openssl \
+      python-ndg-httpsclient \
+      python-requests \
+      python-six \
+      python-urllib3
+
     # install python modules
+    # upgrade pip or other installations may fail in unusual ways
+    pip install --upgrade pip
     pip install \
         Jinja2 \
+        ansible \
         ansible-lint \
         astroid==1.* \
         coverage \
+        certifi \
+        cryptography \
         docker-compose==1.20.1 \
         docker==3.2.1 \
         gitpython \
+        git-review \
         graphviz \
         grpcio-tools \
+        httpie==1.0.3 \
         isort \
         linkchecker \
         more-itertools==5.0.0 \
         mock \
+        netaddr \
+        ndg-httpsclient \
         nose2 \
+        pyopenssl \
         pexpect \
         pylint==1.* \
         pyyaml \
+        requests \
         robotframework \
         robotframework-httplibrary \
         robotframework-kafkalibrary \
         robotframework-lint \
         robotframework-requests \
         robotframework-sshlibrary \
+        six \
         tox \
         twine==1.15.0 \
+        urllib3 \
         virtualenv
         # end of pip install list
 
diff --git a/packer/provision/baseline.sh b/packer/provision/baseline.sh
index ed76c9d..a966a45 100644
--- a/packer/provision/baseline.sh
+++ b/packer/provision/baseline.sh
@@ -341,7 +341,7 @@
     # --- START LFTOOLS DEPS
 
     # Used by various scripts to push patches to Gerrit
-    ensure_ubuntu_install git-review
+    # ensure_ubuntu_install git-review
 
     # Needed to parse OpenStack commands used by opendaylight-infra stack commands
     # to initialize Heat template based systems.