diff --git a/ci/cfengine-build-host-setup.cf b/ci/cfengine-build-host-setup.cf
index ceb93eb10..a6fe92289 100644
--- a/ci/cfengine-build-host-setup.cf
+++ b/ci/cfengine-build-host-setup.cf
@@ -427,7 +427,7 @@ bundle agent cfengine_build_host_setup
 
     (redhat_8|centos_8).!have_fakeroot::
       # special fakeroot, missing from _8 an d up?
-      "sudo rpm -iv https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//packages/fakeroot/1.23/1.fc29/x86_64/fakeroot-1.23-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//packages/fakeroot/1.23/1.fc29/x86_64/fakeroot-libs-1.23-1.fc29.x86_64.rpm"
+      "sudo rpm -iv https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//packages/fakeroot/1.23/1.fc29/${sys.arch}/fakeroot-1.23-1.fc29.${sys.arch}.rpm https://kojipkgs.fedoraproject.org//packages/fakeroot/1.23/1.fc29/${sys.arch}/fakeroot-libs-1.23-1.fc29.${sys.arch}.rpm"
         contain => in_shell;
 
     (redhat|centos).!(redhat_7|centos_7).!(redhat_6|centos_6).!epel_release_ok::
diff --git a/ci/linux-install-pcre2.sh b/ci/linux-install-pcre2.sh
new file mode 100755
index 000000000..64c785ad6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/ci/linux-install-pcre2.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+#!/usr/bin/env bash
+# args:
+# $1 - destination for build e.g. /opt would result in /opt/pcre2 and /opt/pcre2/lib as the build destination. default is /opt
+
+dest="${dest:-/opt}"
+
+GAINROOT=""
+if [ "$(id -u)" != "0" ]; then
+    GAINROOT="sudo"
+    if ! command -v sudo >/dev/null; then
+        echo "Sorry, either run $0 as root or install sudo."
+        exit 1
+    fi
+fi
+
+set -e
+buildscripts_dir="$(cd $(dirname "$0"); cd ..; pwd)"
+
+if [ -d "$dest"/pcre2 ]; then
+    echo "pcre2 already built to $dest/pcre2, removing and building again..."
+    $GAINROOT rm -rf "$dest/pcre2"
+fi
+
+tmpdir="$(mktemp -d)"
+echo "Building pcre2 in $tmpdir..."
+
+(
+    cd "$tmpdir"
+    source="$(head -1 "$buildscripts_dir"/deps-packaging/pcre2/source)"
+    head -1 "$buildscripts_dir"/deps-packaging/pcre2/distfiles > distfile
+    tarball="$(awk '{print $2}' distfile)"
+    curl --fail --location --silent --show-error --output "$tarball" "$source$tarball"
+    sha256sum --check distfile
+    
+    tar xf "$tarball"
+    cd "${tarball%.tar.gz}"
+    ./configure --prefix="$dest"/pcre2 --libdir="$dest"/pcre2/lib
+    make
+    $GAINROOT make install
+)
+rm -rf "$tmpdir"
diff --git a/ci/setup-cfengine-build-host.sh b/ci/setup-cfengine-build-host.sh
index 5e95491f0..25158578d 100755
--- a/ci/setup-cfengine-build-host.sh
+++ b/ci/setup-cfengine-build-host.sh
@@ -317,10 +317,22 @@ if [ ! -x /var/cfengine/bin/cf-agent ]; then
     software git
     echo "cf-remote didn't install cf-agent, try from source"
     rm -rf core # just in case we are repeating the script
+
+    # Here we need to take care of some dependencies on older platforms
+    OPTS=""
+    if grep -q rhel /etc/os-release; then
+        if grep -qi version=\"8 /etc/os-release; then
+            # rhel-8 pcre2 is too old so we must install a sufficient one (10.34+) for libntech as of 2023-12-05 https://github.com/NorthernTechHQ/libntech/commit/12ddb1151629a84a5a13056ecccdc20a0d1d6a0c
+            software gcc make
+            "$thisdir"/linux-install-pcre2.sh /opt
+            OPTS="--with-pcre2=/opt/pcre2"
+        fi
+    fi
+
     git clone --recursive --depth 1 https://github.com/cfengine/core
     (
         cd core
-        ./ci/install.sh
+        OPTS="$OPTS" ./ci/install.sh
     )
 fi