diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 317c4faa97..83e6d15382 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -6,12 +6,14 @@ env:
 before_install:
     - sudo add-apt-repository -y ppa:fkrull/deadsnakes-python2.7
     - sudo apt-get -qq update
-    - sudo apt-get install -qq -y python-dev python-imaging python-mechanize python-lxml python-dateutil python-cssutils python-dnspython poppler-utils libpodofo-dev libwmf-dev libchm-dev libicu-dev libmtp-dev python-netifaces python-psutil python-apsw python-dbus python-pygments optipng qtbase5-private-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qt5-default libfontconfig1-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libudev-dev libxrender-dev
+    - sudo apt-get install -qq -y python-dev python-imaging python-mechanize python-lxml python-dateutil python-cssutils python-dnspython poppler-utils libpodofo-dev libwmf-dev libchm-dev libicu-dev libmtp-dev python-netifaces python-psutil python-apsw python-dbus python-pygments qtbase5-private-dev libqt5webkit5-dev libqt5x11extras5-dev libqt5svg5-dev qt5-default libfontconfig1-dev libssl-dev libsqlite3-dev libudev-dev libxrender-dev libjpeg-progs
     - curl https://download.calibre-ebook.com/travis/sw.tar.xz | tar xJ -C $HOME
     - python setup.py bootstrap --ephemeral
 script: python setup.py test
 
-# Commands used to build sip and PyQt5 (as trusty has no python 2 PyQt packages)
+# Commands used to build optipng, sip and PyQt5 (as trusty has no python 2 PyQt packages)
+# optipng:
+# ./configure --prefix=/home/kovid/sw && make -j2 && make install
 # Sip: 
 # python configure.py -b ~/sw/bin -d ~/sw/lib/python2.7/dist-packages -e ~/sw/include/python2.7 -v ~/sw/share/sip && make -j2 && make install
 # PyQt (we cannot build the webkit module as Qt is too old):
diff --git a/src/calibre/test_build.py b/src/calibre/test_build.py
index 3ec022eb3f..c7dc231510 100644
--- a/src/calibre/test_build.py
+++ b/src/calibre/test_build.py
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@ Test a binary calibre build to ensure that all needed binary images/libraries ha
 
 import os, ctypes, sys, unittest
 from calibre.constants import plugins, iswindows, islinux, isosx
+is_travis = os.environ.get('TRAVIS') == 'true'
 
 class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
@@ -31,11 +32,12 @@ class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
     @unittest.skipUnless(islinux, 'DBUS only used on linux')
     def test_dbus(self):
         import dbus
-        bus = dbus.SystemBus()
-        self.assertTrue(bus.list_names(), 'Failed to list names on the system bus')
-        bus = dbus.SessionBus()
-        self.assertTrue(bus.list_names(), 'Failed to list names on the session bus')
-        del bus
+        if 'DISPLAY' in os.environ:
+            bus = dbus.SystemBus()
+            self.assertTrue(bus.list_names(), 'Failed to list names on the system bus')
+            bus = dbus.SessionBus()
+            self.assertTrue(bus.list_names(), 'Failed to list names on the session bus')
+            del bus
 
     def test_regex(self):
         import regex
@@ -58,6 +60,8 @@ class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def test_plugins(self):
         for name in plugins:
+            if is_travis and name in ('libusb', 'libmtp'):
+                continue
             mod, err = plugins[name]
             self.assertFalse(err or not mod, 'Failed to load plugin: ' + name + ' with error:\n' + err)
 
@@ -111,18 +115,19 @@ class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
         test()
 
         from calibre.gui2 import Application
-        from PyQt5.Qt import (QImageReader, QNetworkAccessManager, QFontDatabase)
-        from PyQt5.QtWebKitWidgets import QWebView
+        from PyQt5.Qt import QImageReader, QNetworkAccessManager, QFontDatabase
         os.environ.pop('DISPLAY', None)
         app = Application([], headless=islinux)
         self.assertGreaterEqual(len(QFontDatabase().families()), 5, 'The QPA headless plugin is not able to locate enough system fonts via fontconfig')
         fmts = set(map(unicode, QImageReader.supportedImageFormats()))
-        testf = set(['jpg', 'png', 'svg', 'ico', 'gif'])
+        testf = {'jpg', 'png', 'svg', 'ico', 'gif'}
         self.assertEqual(testf.intersection(fmts), testf, "Qt doesn't seem to be able to load its image plugins")
-        QWebView()
-        del QWebView
         na = QNetworkAccessManager()
         self.assertTrue(hasattr(na, 'sslErrors'), 'Qt not compiled with openssl')
+        if not is_travis:
+            from PyQt5.QtWebKitWidgets import QWebView
+            QWebView()
+            del QWebView
         del na
         del app
 
@@ -195,10 +200,6 @@ class BuildTest(unittest.TestCase):
         from calibre.library.comments import sanitize_html
         sanitize_html(b'''<script>moo</script>xxx<img src="http://moo.com/x.jpg">''')
 
-    def test_image_compression(self):
-        from calibre.utils.img import test
-        test()
-
     def test_openssl(self):
         import ssl
         ssl.PROTOCOL_TLSv1_2