diff --git a/.github/workflows/linux.yml b/.github/workflows/linux.yml
index c0c21bd0..ed3aa130 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/linux.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/linux.yml
@@ -211,12 +211,23 @@ jobs:
           name: pythonbuild
           path: build
 
-      - name: Download images
-        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
-        with:
-          pattern: image-*
-          path: build
-          merge-multiple: true
+      # - name: Download images
+      #   uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
+      #   with:
+      #     pattern: image-*
+      #     path: build
+      #     merge-multiple: true
+
+      # - name: Load Docker Images
+      #   run: |
+      #     for f in build/image-*.tar.zst; do
+      #       echo "decompressing $f"
+      #       zstd -d --rm ${f}
+      #     done
+      #     for f in build/image-*.tar; do
+      #       echo "loading $f"
+      #       docker load --input $f
+      #     done
 
       - name: Cache downloads
         uses: actions/cache@v4
@@ -227,18 +238,6 @@ jobs:
             ${{ matrix.target_triple }}-${{ hashFiles('pythonbuild/downloads.py')}}
             ${{ matrix.target_triple }}-
 
-      - name: Load Docker Images
-        run: |
-          for f in build/image-*.tar.zst; do
-            echo "decompressing $f"
-            zstd -d --rm ${f}
-          done
-
-          for f in build/image-*.tar; do
-            echo "loading $f"
-            docker load --input $f
-          done
-
       - name: Build
         if: ${{ ! matrix.dry-run }}
         run: |
diff --git a/ci-runners.yaml b/ci-runners.yaml
index aeb0e5ca..e5598fb1 100644
--- a/ci-runners.yaml
+++ b/ci-runners.yaml
@@ -5,11 +5,10 @@ depot-ubuntu-22.04:
   platform: linux
   free: false
 
-# TODO: Enable this runner to perform native builds for aarch64
-# depot-ubuntu-22.04-arm:
-#   arch: aarch64
-#   platform: linux
-#   free: false
+depot-ubuntu-22.04-arm:
+  arch: aarch64
+  platform: linux
+  free: false
 
 depot-macos-latest:
   arch: x86_64
diff --git a/ci-targets.yaml b/ci-targets.yaml
index cd892ac9..eccdf565 100644
--- a/ci-targets.yaml
+++ b/ci-targets.yaml
@@ -50,13 +50,11 @@ linux:
       - "3.14"
     build_options:
       - debug
-      - noopt
-      - lto
+      - pgo+lto
     build_options_conditional:
       - options:
           - freethreaded+debug
-          - freethreaded+noopt
-          - freethreaded+lto
+          - freethreaded+pgo+lto
         minimum-python-version: "3.13"
 
   armv7-unknown-linux-gnueabi:
diff --git a/cpython-unix/targets.yml b/cpython-unix/targets.yml
index 1b179768..1391a078 100644
--- a/cpython-unix/targets.yml
+++ b/cpython-unix/targets.yml
@@ -161,11 +161,11 @@ aarch64-unknown-linux-gnu:
     - '3.12'
     - '3.13'
     - '3.14'
-  docker_image_suffix: .cross
-  host_cc: /usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-gcc
-  host_cxx: /usr/bin/x86_64-linux-gnu-g++
-  target_cc: /usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-gcc
-  target_cxx: /usr/bin/aarch64-linux-gnu-g++
+  # docker_image_suffix: .aarch64
+  host_cc: clang
+  host_cxx: clang++
+  target_cc: clang
+  target_cxx: clang++
   needs:
     - autoconf
     - bdb
diff --git a/pythonbuild/docker.py b/pythonbuild/docker.py
index 4269b2bd..2f850d1f 100644
--- a/pythonbuild/docker.py
+++ b/pythonbuild/docker.py
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 import os
 import pathlib
 import tarfile
+import time
 
 import docker  # type: ignore
 import jinja2
@@ -109,6 +110,25 @@ def run_container(client, image):
     container = client.containers.run(
         image, command=["/bin/sleep", "86400"], detach=True
     )
+
+    # Check if container is actually running
+    for _ in range(10):
+        container.reload()
+
+        if container.status in ("created", "starting"):
+            time.sleep(1)
+            continue
+
+        if container.status == "running":
+            break
+
+        state = container.attrs.get("State", {})
+        exit_code = state.get("ExitCode")
+        error = state.get("Error", "")
+        raise RuntimeError(
+            f"Container failed to start (status {container.status}) with exit code {exit_code}: {error}"
+        )
+
     try:
         yield container
     finally:
@@ -119,10 +139,21 @@ def run_container(client, image):
 def container_exec(container, command, user="build", environment=None):
     # docker-py's exec_run() won't return the exit code. So we reinvent the
     # wheel.
-    create_res = container.client.api.exec_create(
-        container.id, command, user=user, environment=environment
-    )
-
+    try:
+        create_res = container.client.api.exec_create(
+            container.id, command, user=user, environment=environment
+        )
+    except Exception as exc:
+        if container.status != "running":
+            state = container.attrs.get("State", {})
+            exit_code = state.get("ExitCode")
+            error = state.get("Error", "")
+            raise RuntimeError(
+                f"Container is not running (status {container.status}) with exit code {exit_code}: {error}"
+            ) from exc
+        else:
+            raise
+        
     exec_output = container.client.api.exec_start(create_res["Id"], stream=True)
 
     for chunk in exec_output: