diff --git a/debian/.gitlab-ci.yml b/debian/.gitlab-ci.yml
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000000000000000000000000000000000..9150f20cbae2a838185e872dd76f56cf9725ecf6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/debian/.gitlab-ci.yml
@@ -0,0 +1,84 @@
+variables:
+  DEBFULLNAME: "Salsa Pipeline"
+  DEBEMAIL: "<salsa-pipeline@debian.org>"
+  DEBIAN_FRONTEND: noninteractive
+  WORKING_DIR: ./debian/output
+  DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS: "nocheck noautodbgsym"
+  RELEASE: unstable
+
+stages:
+  - build
+  - test
+
+build package:
+  stage: build
+  image: registry.salsa.debian.org/salsa-ci-team/images/gbp
+  services:
+    - docker:dind
+  artifacts:
+    expire_in: 180 day
+    name: "$CI_BUILD_NAME"
+    paths:
+        - ${WORKING_DIR}/
+  script:
+    - gbp pull --ignore-branch --pristine-tar --track-missing
+    - while true; do sleep 600; echo "10 minutes passed" >&2; done & # Progress keeper since build is long and silent
+    - gbp buildpackage --git-ignore-branch --git-export-dir=${WORKING_DIR} -us -uc --git-builder="docker-build.sh registry.salsa.debian.org/salsa-ci-team/images/base:${RELEASE}" | tail -n 10000 # Keep log under 4 MB
+    - du -shc ${WORKING_DIR}/* # Show total file size of artifacts. Must stay are under 100 MB.
+
+# Autopkgtest must be disabled, because the test 'upstream' will be skipped and
+# thus the command returns exit code 2 and is considered failed by Gitlab CI.
+# Removing 'breaks-testbed' stanza from tests/control will result in that the
+# test is run on Gitlab CI, but then it will fail in multiple tests as it cannot
+# bind to network interfaces and other needes stuff inside Gitlab CI containers.
+#
+#run autopkgtest:
+#  stage: test
+#  script:
+#    - apt-get update && apt-get install autopkgtest eatmydata -y --no-install-recommends
+#    - eatmydata autopkgtest ${WORKING_DIR}/*.deb -- null
+
+run lintian:
+  stage: test
+  image: registry.salsa.debian.org/salsa-ci-team/images/lintian
+  script:
+    - apt-get update
+    - apt-get install -y dpkg-dev
+    - lintian -iI ${WORKING_DIR}/*.changes
+
+# Reprotest exceeds the 2 hour timeout limit on Github CI, so results in failure
+# and must be disabled until a quicker (times two) build is possible.
+#run reprotest:
+#  stage: test
+#  image: genericpipeline/reprotest-docker
+#  artifacts:
+#    name: "$CI_BUILD_NAME"
+#    expire_in: 180 day
+#    paths:
+#      - ./reprotest.log
+#    when: always
+#  script:
+#    - apt-get update && apt-get install eatmydata -y
+#    - eatmydata apt-get build-dep -y .
+#    - export DEB_BUILD_OPTIONS=nocheck
+#    - eatmydata reprotest . -- null &> reprotest.log
+#  tags:
+#    - privileged
+
+# Piuparts is passing on official piuparts.debian.org, but fail on Gitlab CI
+# with 'FAIL: Package purging left files on system'. Disabling for now.
+#run piuparts:
+#  stage: test
+#  image: genericpipeline/piuparts-docker
+#  services:
+#    - docker:dind
+#  script:
+#    - CHROOT_PATH=/tmp/debian-unstable
+#    - CONTAINER_ID=$(docker run --rm -d debian:unstable sleep infinity)
+#    - docker exec ${CONTAINER_ID} bash -c "apt-get update && apt-get install eatmydata -y"
+#    - mkdir -p ${CHROOT_PATH}
+#    - docker export ${CONTAINER_ID} | tar -C ${CHROOT_PATH} -xf -
+#    - mknod -m 666 ${CHROOT_PATH}/dev/urandom c 1 9
+#    - piuparts --hard-link -e ${CHROOT_PATH} ${WORKING_DIR}/*.deb
+#  tags:
+#    - privileged
diff --git a/debian/tests/smoke b/debian/tests/smoke
index d463b168ac4011d94f869a03cee4ef0f215c399e..43e3a4ca3754b72f7e2502c38e42ca00892565f5 100644
--- a/debian/tests/smoke
+++ b/debian/tests/smoke
@@ -21,6 +21,22 @@ set -ex
 # 2) Creates a test table and checks it appears to operate normally
 # using the test user and test database.
 
+# Start the deamon if it was not running. For example in Docker testing
+# environments there might not be any systemd et al and the service needs to
+# be started manually.
+if ! which systemctl
+then
+  if ! /etc/init.d/mysql status
+  then
+    echo "Did not find systemctl and deamon was not running, starting it.."
+    /etc/init.d/mysql start
+  fi
+else
+  # If systemd (and systemctl) is available, but the service did not start, then
+  # this smoke test is supposed to fail if next commands don't work.
+  echo "Found systemctl, continuing smoke test.."
+fi
+
 mysql <<EOT
 CREATE DATABASE testdatabase;
 CREATE USER 'testuser'@'localhost' identified by 'testpassword';