diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a6f749a6dc92deb9433e9ebb9f8f6cc7bf9442a1..b53e8cc2455f7ef89e4ff6e0c706417b48b06db4 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -480,7 +480,7 @@ test_install_debian_package:
      - echo "deb http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
      - echo "deb-src http://archive.debian.org/debian-security stretch/updates main" >> /etc/apt/sources.list
      - apt-get update
-     - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y ssh software-properties-common dirmngr wget curl postgresql
+     - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y ssh software-properties-common dirmngr wget curl postgresql screen
      - service postgresql start
      - debian_file=$(ls debian/*.deb)
      - echo debconf minerva/internal/skip-preseed boolean true | debconf-set-selections
@@ -489,9 +489,8 @@ test_install_debian_package:
      - echo debconf minerva/remote/host select localhost | debconf-set-selections
      - echo debconf minerva/db/dbname select minerva_db | debconf-set-selections
      - echo debconf minerva/db/app-user select minerva_user@localhost | debconf-set-selections
-     - apt-get update
      - DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive apt-get install -y ./$debian_file
-     - java -jar /usr/share/minerva/minerva.jar &
+     - screen -d -m java -jar /usr/share/minerva/minerva.jar
 #we need to wait a bit for tomcat start
      - sleep 15
      - wget http://localhost:8080/minerva/