diff --git a/scripts/ci/end-to-end-tests.sh b/scripts/ci/end-to-end-tests.sh
index 85257420e3..567c853c2b 100644
--- a/scripts/ci/end-to-end-tests.sh
+++ b/scripts/ci/end-to-end-tests.sh
@@ -34,8 +34,8 @@ ln -s $REACT_SDK_DIR/$RIOT_WEB_DIR riot/riot-web
 # CHROME_PATH=$(which google-chrome-stable) ./run.sh
 echo "--- Install synapse & other dependencies"
 ./install.sh
-# install (only) static webserver to server symlinked local copy of riot
-./riot/install.sh --without-riot
+# install static webserver to server symlinked local copy of riot
+./riot/install-webserver.sh
 mkdir logs
 echo "+++ Running end-to-end tests"
 TESTS_STARTED=1
diff --git a/test/end-to-end-tests/install.sh b/test/end-to-end-tests/install.sh
index de73c3868c..937ef1f5eb 100755
--- a/test/end-to-end-tests/install.sh
+++ b/test/end-to-end-tests/install.sh
@@ -2,7 +2,6 @@
 # run with PUPPETEER_SKIP_CHROMIUM_DOWNLOAD=true sh install.sh if chrome is already installed
 set -e
 ./synapse/install.sh
-# both CI and local testing don't need a Riot fetched from master,
-# so not installing this by default anymore
-# ./riot/install.sh
+# local testing doesn't need a Riot fetched from master,
+# so not installing that by default
 yarn install
diff --git a/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install-webserver.sh b/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install-webserver.sh
new file mode 100755
index 0000000000..5c38a1eea3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install-webserver.sh
@@ -0,0 +1,21 @@
+#!/bin/bash
+set -e
+
+BASE_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0) && pwd)
+cd $BASE_DIR
+# Install ComplexHttpServer (a drop in replacement for Python's SimpleHttpServer
+# but with support for multiple threads) into a virtualenv.
+(
+    virtualenv -p python3 env
+    source env/bin/activate
+
+    # Having been bitten by pip SSL fail too many times, I don't trust the existing pip
+    # to be able to --upgrade itself, so grab a new one fresh from source.
+    curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
+    python get-pip.py
+    rm get-pip.py
+
+    pip install ComplexHttpServer
+
+    deactivate
+)
diff --git a/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install.sh b/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install.sh
index 9495234bcc..f66ab3224e 100755
--- a/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install.sh
+++ b/test/end-to-end-tests/riot/install.sh
@@ -2,44 +2,15 @@
 set -e
 RIOT_BRANCH=develop
 
-with_riot=1
-
-for i in $@; do
-    if [ "$i" == "--without-riot" ] ; then
-        with_riot=0
-    fi
-done
-
-BASE_DIR=$(cd $(dirname $0) && pwd)
-cd $BASE_DIR
-# Install ComplexHttpServer (a drop in replacement for Python's SimpleHttpServer
-# but with support for multiple threads) into a virtualenv.
-(
-    virtualenv -p python3 env
-    source env/bin/activate
-
-    # Having been bitten by pip SSL fail too many times, I don't trust the existing pip
-    # to be able to --upgrade itself, so grab a new one fresh from source.
-    curl https://bootstrap.pypa.io/get-pip.py -o get-pip.py
-    python get-pip.py
-    rm get-pip.py
-
-    pip install ComplexHttpServer
-
-    deactivate
-)
-
 if [ -d $BASE_DIR/riot-web ]; then
     echo "riot is already installed"
     exit
 fi
 
-if [ $with_riot -eq 1 ]; then
-    curl -L https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/archive/${RIOT_BRANCH}.zip --output riot.zip
-    unzip -q riot.zip
-    rm riot.zip
-    mv riot-web-${RIOT_BRANCH} riot-web
-    cd riot-web
-    yarn install
-    yarn run build
-fi
+curl -L https://github.com/vector-im/riot-web/archive/${RIOT_BRANCH}.zip --output riot.zip
+unzip -q riot.zip
+rm riot.zip
+mv riot-web-${RIOT_BRANCH} riot-web
+cd riot-web
+yarn install
+yarn run build