diff --git a/.travis/dispatch.sh b/.travis/dispatch.sh
index cdb61755..ed9e38e1 100755
--- a/.travis/dispatch.sh
+++ b/.travis/dispatch.sh
@@ -67,13 +67,6 @@ setup_test_venv() {
     if ! which salt-call >/dev/null; then
         install_salt 'test_venv'
     fi
-    travis_fold_start 'test_venv.install_python3' \
-        'Setting up Python 3 virtualenv for testing'
-    # Use the system Python 3 to make it easy to run tests on fresh hosts
-    # Make sure dependencies are installed (like `python3-venv` on Debian derivatives)
-    salt_call --retcode-passthrough state.sls python
-    travis_fold_end 'test_venv.install_python3'
-
 
     printf "Using %s at %s\n" "$(python3 --version)" "$(which python3)"
 
diff --git a/.travis/install_salt.sh b/.travis/install_salt.sh
index eb467189..05069684 100755
--- a/.travis/install_salt.sh
+++ b/.travis/install_salt.sh
@@ -24,6 +24,13 @@ install_salt() {
         ${SUDO} apt-get -y update
         ${SUDO} apt-get -y install --no-install-recommends ca-certificates curl apt-transport-https
 
+        # ensure venv is installed
+        if [[ "${os_codename}" == "trusty" ]]; then
+            ${SUDO} apt-get -y install python3.4-venv
+        else
+            ${SUDO} apt-get -y install python3-venv
+        fi
+
         curl "https://repo.saltstack.com/apt/ubuntu/${os_release}/amd64/archive/2018.3.2/SALTSTACK-GPG-KEY.pub" | \
             ${SUDO} apt-key add -
         printf \
diff --git a/homu/init.sls b/homu/init.sls
index 17406834..b29ff281 100644
--- a/homu/init.sls
+++ b/homu/init.sls
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@ homu:
       - MarkupSafe==1.0
       - packaging==16.8
       - pyparsing==2.1.10
-      - requests==2.14.2
+      - requests==2.20.0
       - retrying==1.3.3
       - six==1.10.0
       - toml==0.9.1