diff --git a/buildserver/provision-gradle b/buildserver/provision-gradle
index e385fffe..d0eaf8ea 100644
--- a/buildserver/provision-gradle
+++ b/buildserver/provision-gradle
@@ -2,11 +2,18 @@
 
 set -ex
 
+
+# version compare magic
+vergte() {
+    printf '%s\n%s' "$1" "$2" | sort -C -V -r
+}
+
 test -e /opt/gradle/versions || mkdir -p /opt/gradle/versions
 cd /opt/gradle/versions
 for f in /vagrant/cache/gradle-*.zip; do
     ver=`echo $f | sed 's,.*gradle-\([0-9][0-9.]*\).*\.zip,\1,'`
-    if [ ! -d /opt/gradle/versions/${ver} ]; then
+    # only use versions greater or equal 2.2.1
+    if vergte $ver 2.2.1 && [ ! -d /opt/gradle/versions/${ver} ]; then
         unzip -qq $f
         mv gradle-${ver} /opt/gradle/versions/${ver}
     fi
diff --git a/makebuildserver b/makebuildserver
index e7d82111..7ee2ac57 100755
--- a/makebuildserver
+++ b/makebuildserver
@@ -299,28 +299,6 @@ cachefiles = [
      '4825b52a6258a9c2ab073720a5e91e2fa81b552b48024ee81887b863397416af'),
     ('https://dl.google.com/android/repository/build-tools_r28.0.2-linux.zip',
      '12cebcafd8f30119c7ef53ffb3562a5b5b9f776c9399038587c18df44ea6452b'),
-    # the binaries that Google uses are here:
-    # https://android.googlesource.com/platform/tools/external/gradle/+/studio-1.5/
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.4-bin.zip',
-     'cd99e85fbcd0ae8b99e81c9992a2f10cceb7b5f009c3720ef3a0078f4f92e94e'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.6-bin.zip',
-     'de3e89d2113923dcc2e0def62d69be0947ceac910abd38b75ec333230183fac4'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.7-bin.zip',
-     '360c97d51621b5a1ecf66748c718594e5f790ae4fbc1499543e0c006033c9d30'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.8-bin.zip',
-     'a342bbfa15fd18e2482287da4959588f45a41b60910970a16e6d97959aea5703'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.9-bin.zip',
-     '097ddc2bcbc9da2bb08cbf6bf8079585e35ad088bafd42e8716bc96405db98e9'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.10-bin.zip',
-     '6e6db4fc595f27ceda059d23693b6f6848583950606112b37dfd0e97a0a0a4fe'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.11-bin.zip',
-     '07e235df824964f0e19e73ea2327ce345c44bcd06d44a0123d29ab287fc34091'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.12-bin.zip',
-     '8734b13a401f4311ee418173ed6ca8662d2b0a535be8ff2a43ecb1c13cd406ea'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.1-bin.zip',
-     '3eee4f9ea2ab0221b89f8e4747a96d4554d00ae46d8d633f11cfda60988bf878'),
-    ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.2-bin.zip',
-     '91e5655fe11ef414449f218c4fa2985b3a49b7903c57556da109c84fa26e1dfb'),
     ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.2.1-bin.zip',
      '420aa50738299327b611c10b8304b749e8d3a579407ee9e755b15921d95ff418'),
     ('https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.3-bin.zip',