--- a/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1204-test-system-setup.sh
+++ b/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1204-test-system-setup.sh
@@ -115,17 +115,17 @@ apt_packages+=('x11-xserver-utils')
 
 # use Ubuntu's Python-2.7 (2.7.3 on Precise)
 apt_packages+=('python-dev')
 apt_packages+=('python-pip')
 
 apt-get update
 # This allows ubuntu-desktop to be installed without human interaction
 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-apt-get install -y --force-yes ${apt_packages[@]}
+apt-get install -y --force-yes --no-install-recommends ${apt_packages[@]}
 
 dpkg-reconfigure locales
 
 tooltool_fetch() {
     cat >manifest.tt
     python /setup/tooltool.py fetch
     rm manifest.tt
 }

--- a/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1604-test-system-setup.sh
+++ b/testing/docker/recipes/ubuntu1604-test-system-setup.sh
@@ -81,17 +81,17 @@ apt_packages+=('x11-xserver-utils')
 
 # use Ubuntu's Python-2.7 (2.7.3 on Precise)
 apt_packages+=('python-dev')
 apt_packages+=('python-pip')
 
 apt-get update
 # This allows ubuntu-desktop to be installed without human interaction
 export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
-apt-get install -y -f ${apt_packages[@]}
+apt-get install -y -f --no-install-recommends ${apt_packages[@]}
 
 dpkg-reconfigure locales
 
 # set up tooltool (temporarily)
 tooltool_fetch() {
     cat >manifest.tt
     python /setup/tooltool.py fetch
     rm manifest.tt