diff --git a/images/Dockerfile.ci b/images/Dockerfile.ci
index 87bf92442..a9866d722 100644
--- a/images/Dockerfile.ci
+++ b/images/Dockerfile.ci
@@ -1,6 +1,9 @@
 FROM ubuntu:24.04
 ENV GNOCCHI_WORKSPACE /github/workspace
 ENV DEBIAN_FRONTEND noninteractive
+# NOTE(callumdickinson): Needed for Debian-packaged setuptools to work with Python 3.9 and 3.11.
+# https://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=1003252
+ENV SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS stdlib
 
 #NOTE(tobias-urdin): need gnupg for apt-key
 RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -qy gnupg software-properties-common
@@ -15,12 +18,16 @@ RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -qy \
         python3 \
         python3-dev \
         python3-pip \
+        python3-setuptools \
+        python3-wheel \
         python3-virtualenv \
         python3.9 \
         python3.9-dev \
         python3.9-distutils \
         python3.11 \
         python3.11-dev \
+        python3.11-distutils \
+        tox \
 # Needed for uwsgi core routing support
         build-essential \
         libffi-dev \
@@ -42,15 +49,6 @@ RUN apt-get update -y && apt-get install -qy \
 
 RUN rm -rf /var/lib/apt/lists/*
 
-# NOTE(tobias.urdin): hack since pyparsing in site-packages collides with our requirements
-RUN rm -rf /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/pyparsing*
-
-# NOTE(tobias.urdin): hack since jaraco packages in site-packages collides with our requirements
-RUN rm -rf /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/jaraco*
-
-# TODO(tobias.urdin): hack remove this when we drop python 3.9
-RUN sed -i '1s/^/from __future__ import annotations\n/' /usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/werkzeug/sansio/utils.py
-
 #NOTE(sileht): really no utf-8 in 2017 !?
 ENV LANG en_US.UTF-8
 RUN update-locale
diff --git a/images/entrypoint.sh.ci b/images/entrypoint.sh.ci
index f5e424e49..cc00ea2cb 100755
--- a/images/entrypoint.sh.ci
+++ b/images/entrypoint.sh.ci
@@ -1,7 +1,3 @@
 #!/bin/sh
 
-python3 -m virtualenv /tmp/gnocchi-tox-env
-. /tmp/gnocchi-tox-env/bin/activate
-pip install tox
-
 $@
diff --git a/tox.ini b/tox.ini
index 03f7e9afd..db8acdba0 100644
--- a/tox.ini
+++ b/tox.ini
@@ -10,7 +10,7 @@ passenv =
     GNOCCHI_TEST_*
     AWS_*
 setenv =
-    VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS=bundle
+    SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS={env:SETUPTOOLS_USE_DISTUTILS:local}
     GNOCCHI_TEST_STORAGE_DRIVER=file
     GNOCCHI_TEST_INDEXER_DRIVER=postgresql
     GNOCCHI_TEST_STORAGE_DRIVERS=file swift ceph s3 redis
@@ -69,7 +69,6 @@ deps =
 # Gnocchi we can't reuse the virtualenv
 recreate = True
 setenv =
-    VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS=bundle
     GNOCCHI_VERSION_FROM=stable/4.5
     GNOCCHI_VARIANT=test,postgresql,file
 deps =
@@ -84,7 +83,6 @@ allowlist_externals = {toxinidir}/run-upgrade-tests.sh
 # Gnocchi we can't reuse the virtualenv
 recreate = True
 setenv =
-    VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS=bundle
     GNOCCHI_VERSION_FROM=stable/4.5
     GNOCCHI_VARIANT=test,mysql,ceph,ceph_recommended_lib
 deps =
@@ -134,7 +132,6 @@ deps =
     .[test,file,postgresql,doc]
     doc8
 setenv =
-    VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS=bundle
     GNOCCHI_TEST_DEBUG=1
 commands =
     doc8 --ignore-path doc/source/rest.rst,doc/source/comparison-table.rst doc/source
@@ -145,7 +142,6 @@ allowlist_externals =
     /bin/bash
     /bin/rm
 setenv =
-    VIRTUALENV_SETUPTOOLS=bundle
     GNOCCHI_STORAGE_DEPS=file
     GNOCCHI_TEST_DEBUG=1
 deps =