diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index 4073c8b076eb24..b104a97347f2c1 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -449,20 +449,11 @@ jobs:
     if: needs.ci-config.outputs.enabled == 'yes'
     env:
       jobname: sparse
-    runs-on: ubuntu-20.04
+    runs-on: ubuntu-22.04
     concurrency:
       group: sparse-${{ github.ref }}
       cancel-in-progress: ${{ needs.ci-config.outputs.skip_concurrent == 'yes' }}
     steps:
-    - name: Download a current `sparse` package
-      # Ubuntu's `sparse` version is too old for us
-      uses: git-for-windows/get-azure-pipelines-artifact@v0
-      with:
-        repository: git/git
-        definitionId: 10
-        artifact: sparse-20.04
-    - name: Install the current `sparse` package
-      run: sudo dpkg -i sparse-20.04/sparse_*.deb
     - uses: actions/checkout@v4
     - name: Install other dependencies
       run: ci/install-dependencies.sh
diff --git a/Makefile b/Makefile
index cf02ea28c01d4c..6b4235e3212c6b 100644
--- a/Makefile
+++ b/Makefile
@@ -1418,7 +1418,7 @@ ARFLAGS = rcs
 PTHREAD_CFLAGS =
 
 # For the 'sparse' target
-SPARSE_FLAGS ?= -std=gnu99
+SPARSE_FLAGS ?= -std=gnu99 -D__STDC_NO_VLA__
 SP_EXTRA_FLAGS =
 
 # For informing GIT-BUILD-OPTIONS of the SANITIZE=leak,address targets
diff --git a/ci/install-dependencies.sh b/ci/install-dependencies.sh
index 0df74610d063fb..be9ba5e30a477b 100755
--- a/ci/install-dependencies.sh
+++ b/ci/install-dependencies.sh
@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@ alpine-*)
 	;;
 fedora-*|almalinux-*)
 	dnf -yq update >/dev/null &&
-	dnf -yq install shadow-utils sudo make gcc findutils diffutils perl python3 gettext zlib-devel expat-devel openssl-devel curl-devel pcre2-devel >/dev/null
+	dnf -yq install shadow-utils sudo make gcc findutils diffutils perl python3 gawk gettext zlib-devel expat-devel openssl-devel curl-devel pcre2-devel >/dev/null
 	;;
 ubuntu-*|i386/ubuntu-*|debian-*)
 	# Required so that apt doesn't wait for user input on certain packages.
@@ -119,7 +119,7 @@ StaticAnalysis)
 sparse)
 	sudo apt-get -q update -q
 	sudo apt-get -q -y install libssl-dev libcurl4-openssl-dev \
-		libexpat-dev gettext zlib1g-dev
+		libexpat-dev gettext zlib1g-dev sparse
 	;;
 Documentation)
 	sudo apt-get -q update