diff --git a/debian/aegir3-hostmaster.postinst b/debian/aegir3-hostmaster.postinst
index dc64d1d8f6079755c843a070f396e07ab9238e01..1964e9598251950689b75948ced1727f87b3bb51 100644
--- a/debian/aegir3-hostmaster.postinst
+++ b/debian/aegir3-hostmaster.postinst
@@ -115,12 +115,15 @@ case "$1" in
             db_get "aegir/db_host"
             AEGIR_DB_HOST="$RET"
 
+            # Read /etc/os-release to properly handle differences between distributions
+            OS_ID=$(grep ^ID /etc/os-release | cut -d= -f2)
+
             # Determin if we create a db accoount or ask for it.
             # Starting from MariaDB 10.1... https://www.drupal.org/node/2770819
             # TODO: Work with future versions
-            if dpkg -s mariadb-server-10.1 > /dev/null 2>&1
+            if mysql --database=mysql --execute="show tables;" > /dev/null 2>&1
             then
-              # MariaDB > 10.1
+              # MariaDB = 10.1
               CREATEUSER=1
             else
               # Mysql & MariaDB < 10.1
diff --git a/scripts/ci-aegir-dev-install-apt-ubuntu-artful.sh b/scripts/ci-aegir-dev-install-apt-ubuntu-artful.sh
index 726c2c7f574d6c7f2345135927908ab694315217..ee53aee4439528c9cd911ad7278c93b93d305642 100755
--- a/scripts/ci-aegir-dev-install-apt-ubuntu-artful.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci-aegir-dev-install-apt-ubuntu-artful.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 # Install Aegir debian packages located in the 'build/' directory.
 # These are provided by the GitLab CI build stage.
 #
-# This script is tuned for Ubuntu 16.04.
+# This script is tuned for Ubuntu 17.10.
 #
 echo "[CI] Updating APT"
 sudo apt-get update
@@ -12,9 +12,6 @@ echo "debconf debconf/frontend select Noninteractive" | debconf-set-selections
 #echo "debconf debconf/priority select critical" | debconf-set-selections
 
 
-echo mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server/root_password password PASSWORD | debconf-set-selections
-echo mysql-server-5.7 mysql-server/root_password_again password PASSWORD | debconf-set-selections
-
 debconf-set-selections <<EOF
 aegir3-hostmaster aegir/db_password string PASSWORD
 aegir3-hostmaster aegir/db_password seen  true