diff --git a/debian/gitlab-ci.yml b/debian/gitlab-ci.yml
index f0dedd93ca328958134e01ac0f8d9d7833516f22..c63d3da0f394cf680d0092ca97d74ffc717053d4 100644
--- a/debian/gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/debian/gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -41,6 +41,11 @@ variables:
     # Set non-empty to allow
     CI_ALLOW_MISSING_SOURCES: ''
 
+    # Work around _srt_rm_rf behaving oddly on overlayfs (?)
+    STEAM_CI_INSTALL_SCRIPT: |
+        mkdir -p "${TMPDIR}"
+    TMPDIR: "${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/debian/tmpdir"
+
 stages:
     - build
     - test
@@ -135,6 +140,7 @@ autopkgtest:
         - build
     variables:
         STEAM_CI_INSTALL_SCRIPT: |
+            mkdir -p "${TMPDIR}"
             # Workaround for the build regression described in !88
             apt-get -y remove libsteam-runtime-tools-0-helpers