diff --git a/build-scripts/unpack-tarballs b/build-scripts/unpack-tarballs
index 01f67afb8..bb67aa9af 100755
--- a/build-scripts/unpack-tarballs
+++ b/build-scripts/unpack-tarballs
@@ -68,5 +68,5 @@ log_debug "UNPACKING MASTERFILES TARBALL: $MASTERFILES_TARBALL AND SYMLINKING ma
 # We want globbing here
 gzip -dc $MASTERFILES_TARBALL | tar -xf -
 # the masterfiles tarball would match cfengine-masterfiles-* so find the unpacked dir specifically
-_cfmpfdir=$(find -type d -name 'cfengine-masterfiles-*')
+_cfmpfdir=$(find . -type d -name 'cfengine-masterfiles-*')
 ln -s "$_cfmpfdir" masterfiles
diff --git a/ci/fix-buildhost.sh b/ci/fix-buildhost.sh
index beea92f0e..d825bfc04 100755
--- a/ci/fix-buildhost.sh
+++ b/ci/fix-buildhost.sh
@@ -1,13 +1,18 @@
 #!/usr/bin/env bash
 # it is expected that this file is sourced, not executed directly
 set -ex
-my_path="$(realpath "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"
-my_dir="$(dirname "$my_path")"
 
 if [ -f /etc/os-release ]; then
   source /etc/os-release
   if [ "$ID" = "centos" ] && [ "$VERSION_ID" = "7" ]; then
-    source "$my_dir"/centos-7-setup-devtoolset-11.sh
+    if command -v realpath >/dev/null; then
+      my_path="$(realpath "${BASH_SOURCE[0]}")"
+      my_dir="$(dirname "$my_path")"
+      source "$my_dir"/centos-7-setup-devtoolset-11.sh
+    else
+      echo "FAIL: could not find realpath command on rhel/centos-7 to source needed centos-7-setup-devtoolset-11.sh"
+      exit 1
+    fi
   fi
 fi
 
diff --git a/ci/initialize-build-host.sh b/ci/initialize-build-host.sh
index 7080d2dd4..eefbbc937 100644
--- a/ci/initialize-build-host.sh
+++ b/ci/initialize-build-host.sh
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@
 #    serial execution of initialization steps. It will post the output when
 #    finished, if any.
 #
-# 2. If $(pwd)/proxy-target.txt exists, it means this is a proxy host, and the
+# 2. If $HOME/proxy-target.txt exists, it means this is a proxy host, and the
 #    real build machine is on the host specified by the login details inside
 #    that file. If the file does not exist, we are on the build slave itself.
 #    After figuring that stuff out, the script will run the rest of the original
@@ -227,7 +227,7 @@ reset_nested_vm() {
         fi
 	if [ ! -z "$login" ]
 	then
-	    ip=`sed 's/.*@//' $(pwd)/proxy-target.txt`
+	    ip=`sed 's/.*@//' $HOME/proxy-target.txt`
             if sudo arp | grep -q $ip
             then
                 sudo arp -d $ip
@@ -235,7 +235,7 @@ reset_nested_vm() {
 	fi
         # TODO, remove this, we don't need or use or test nested-vms
 	$HOME/mender-qa/scripts/nested-vm.sh $HOME/*.qcow2
-        login="`cat $(pwd)/proxy-target.txt`"
+        login="`cat $HOME/proxy-target.txt`"
         if $RSH $login true
         then
             echo "Nested VM is back up, it seems. Happily continuing!"
@@ -277,13 +277,13 @@ reset_nested_vm() {
     fi
 }
 
-if [ -f $(pwd)/proxy-target.txt ]
+if [ -f $HOME/proxy-target.txt ]
 then
     # --------------------------------------------------------------------------
     # Check target machine health.
     # --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
-    login="$(cat $(pwd)/proxy-target.txt)"
+    login="$(cat $HOME/proxy-target.txt)"
 
     if [ ! -z "$login" ] && $RSH $login true
     then