diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 55744222b1..409fcd75d4 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+# we need trusty for the chrome addon
+dist: trusty
+
+# we don't need sudo, so can run in a container, which makes startup much
+# quicker.
+sudo: false
+
 language: node_js
 node_js:
     # make sure we work with a range of node versions.