diff --git a/BUILD/install_build_deps.sh b/BUILD/install_build_deps.sh
index 55342045c..7c1ffb592 100755
--- a/BUILD/install_build_deps.sh
+++ b/BUILD/install_build_deps.sh
@@ -14,9 +14,14 @@ if [ $? == 0 ]
 then
   # DEB-based distro
   install_libdir=/usr/lib
+  export DEBIAN_FRONTEND=noninteractive
   sudo apt-get update
 
-  sudo apt-get install -y --force-yes dpkg-dev git wget \
+  sudo dpkg-reconfigure libc6
+  sudo -E apt-get -q -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confold \
+       -o Dpkg::Options::=--force-confdef \
+       -y --force-yes \
+       install dpkg-dev git wget \
        build-essential libssl-dev ncurses-dev bison flex \
        perl libtool libpcre3-dev tcl tcl-dev uuid \
        uuid-dev libsqlite3-dev liblzma-dev libpam0g-dev pkg-config \
diff --git a/maxutils/maxsql/src/mariadb.cc b/maxutils/maxsql/src/mariadb.cc
index 6980944a9..9ce7b1793 100644
--- a/maxutils/maxsql/src/mariadb.cc
+++ b/maxutils/maxsql/src/mariadb.cc
@@ -13,6 +13,8 @@
 #include <maxsql/mariadb.hh>
 #include <string.h>
 #include <errmsg.h>
+#include <thread>
+#include <chrono>
 #include <maxbase/alloc.h>
 #include <maxbase/assert.h>
 #include <maxbase/format.hh>
@@ -44,6 +46,14 @@ int mysql_query_ex(MYSQL* conn, const std::string& query, int query_retries, tim
     for (int n = 0; rc != 0 && n < query_retries && mysql_is_net_error(mysql_errno(conn))
          && time(NULL) - start < query_retry_timeout; n++)
     {
+        if (n > 0)
+        {
+            // The first reconnection didn't work, wait for one second before attempting again. This
+            // should reduce the likelihood of transient problems causing state changes due to too many
+            // reconnection attemps in a short period of time.
+            std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));
+        }
+
         rc = mysql_query(conn, query_cstr);
     }