diff --git a/images/minideb/minideb.sh b/images/minideb/minideb.sh
index 64d2003..a841cb0 100755
--- a/images/minideb/minideb.sh
+++ b/images/minideb/minideb.sh
@@ -7,6 +7,9 @@ set -e;
 # These can all be changed via environment variables.
 
 clone_url="${clone_url:-https://github.com/bitnami/minideb.git}";
+# The ref to checkout. Could be a branch name or a specific commit.
+# In this case this is the last commit before google cloud was added
+ref="e8efb17bd6859d2a40205e6ddfcd633d662968cf";
 image_version="${image_version:-buster}";
 
 apply_patch_raspbian="${apply_patch_raspbian:-true}";
@@ -84,7 +87,9 @@ trap on_exit EXIT;
 log_msg "Cloning minideb";
 git clone "${clone_url}" "${temp_dir}/minideb";
 
-cd "${temp_dir}/minideb";
+cd "${temp_dir}/minideb" || { echo "Error: Failed to cd into minideb cloned git repository" >&2; exit 1; };
+git checkout "${ref}";
+
 if [[ "${apply_patch_raspbian}" == "true" ]]; then
 	log_msg "Applying Raspbian patch";
 	git apply "${config_dir}/minideb-raspbian.patch";