diff --git a/.gitlab-ci.yml b/.gitlab-ci.yml
index a04521a27d5a3461551ae9ced61fe2a00bec6eb1..633f4c17a5f58d278f2304e14c35f9b74709f21a 100644
--- a/.gitlab-ci.yml
+++ b/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -5,9 +5,10 @@ stages:
 variables:
   OPENWRT_VERSION: 23.05.3
   FILES: ${CI_PROJECT_DIR}/files
-  DEFAULT_PACKAGES: luci
+  DEFAULT_PACKAGES: luci wpad-mbedtls prometheus-node-exporter-lua prometheus-node-exporter-lua-openwrt prometheus-node-exporter-lua-wifi prometheus-node-exporter-lua-wifi_stations
   EXTRA_PACKAGES: openwisp-config openwisp-monitoring netjson-monitoring
-  DISABLED_SERVICES: dnsmasq firewall odhcpd
+  REMOVE_PACKAGES: dnsmasq odhcpd-ipv6only wpad-basic-mbedtls
+  DISABLED_SERVICES: firewall
   EXTRA_IMAGE_NAME: fakedOrg
 
 .build_image:
@@ -19,8 +20,8 @@ variables:
     - for url in $(cat packages.txt); do curl --create-dirs -s -O --output-dir /builder/packages $url; done && ls -1 /builder/packages
     - cd /builder
   script:
-    - echo PROFILE=${PROFILE} FILES=${FILES} PACKAGES="${DEFAULT_PACKAGES} ${EXTRA_PACKAGES}"
-    - make image PROFILE=${PROFILE} FILES=${FILES} PACKAGES="${DEFAULT_PACKAGES} ${EXTRA_PACKAGES}"
+    - export REMOVE_PACKAGES=$(for package in ${REMOVE_PACKAGES}; do echo -n "-${package} "; done)
+    - make image PROFILE=${PROFILE} FILES=${FILES} PACKAGES="${DEFAULT_PACKAGES} ${EXTRA_PACKAGES} ${REMOVE_PACKAGES}"
   after_script:
     - if [[ -d /builder/bin ]]; then mv /builder/bin .; fi
     - if [[ -d /builder/dl ]]; then mv /builder/dl .; fi