diff --git a/.github/workflows/actions.lock b/.github/workflows/actions.lock
index 1377d8e9..1c6d4fa1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/actions.lock
+++ b/.github/workflows/actions.lock
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@ dependencies:
         repo_id: 259445878
     'linux-system-roles/.github@main':
         ref: 'main'
-        commit: 'sha1-40d52b121c13197831827e45113c1dce6afacf0c'
+        commit: 'sha1-df8dd90550279264a8ff13a2153ff747d79047a1'
         owner_id: 28014670
         repo_id: 320092621
     'sclorg/testing-farm-as-github-action@v4.3.1':
diff --git a/plans/test_playbooks_parallel.fmf b/plans/test_playbooks_parallel.fmf
index 06a2d615..46f655a1 100644
--- a/plans/test_playbooks_parallel.fmf
+++ b/plans/test_playbooks_parallel.fmf
@@ -82,9 +82,12 @@ prepare:
       done
       install -d -m 0755 "$plugin_dir" "$plugin_conf_dir"
       install -m 0644 "$download_dir/package_retry.py" "$plugin_dir/package_retry.py"
-      # Retry after 5, 10, 20, 40, and 80 seconds.
-      sed -i -e 's/^retries = .*/retries = 5/' \
-        -e 's/^strategy = .*/strategy = exponential/' "$download_dir/package_retry.conf"
+      # exponential retries too soon, and if you make the interval large, the last retries
+      # happen too late - so try fixed with a delay of 5 minutes
+      sed -e 's/^retries = .*/retries = 3/' \
+        -e 's/^delay = .*/delay = 300/' \
+        -e 's/^strategy = .*/strategy = fixed/' \
+        -i "$download_dir/package_retry.conf"
       install -m 0644 "$download_dir/package_retry.conf" "$plugin_conf_dir/package_retry.conf"
 discover:
   - name: Prepare managed node