diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index 92398169bb0c4b834d234bf1cec656073e7e04b0..70f680e8ab5d388d64ff692e15aaa87efc7e66d5 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -1,18 +1,9 @@
 ---
 variables:
-# work around https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/issues/2148
-# value should be "recursive" without workaround
-  GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: none
+  GIT_SUBMODULE_STRATEGY: recursive
 
 before_script:
 - echo "Running make concurrently with $(nproc) cores, where possibly"
-# make sure we can update submodules and apply the patches
-- git submodule foreach --recursive git reset --hard HEAD
-- git submodule foreach --recursive git clean -fdx
-# work around https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab-ci-multi-runner/issues/2148
-- git submodule sync --recursive
-- git submodule update --init --recursive
-# end workaround
 - patches/apply_patches.sh
 # detect number of processors, but make sure never to run with -j"", as the
 # build host would likely run out of memory