diff --git a/.github/workflows/main.yml b/.github/workflows/main.yml
index eebbd493cff..ed82de852aa 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/main.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/main.yml
@@ -25,10 +25,11 @@ jobs:
             os: ubuntu-latest
             container_image: alpine:3.21
             host_dmd: ldmd2
+            timeout_minutes: 60 # Alpine/musl currently pushes `test_phobos` beyond the 40 minute default budget
           # macOS
           - job_name: macOS x64
             os: macos-14
-            timeout-minutes: 60
+            timeout_minutes: 120 # macOS generally takes more time than Linux/Alpine
           # Windows
           - job_name: Windows x64
             os: windows-2022
@@ -38,7 +39,7 @@ jobs:
     name: ${{ matrix.job_name }}
     runs-on: ${{ matrix.os }}
     container: ${{ matrix.container_image }}
-    timeout-minutes: ${{ matrix.timeout-minutes || 40 }}
+    timeout-minutes: ${{ matrix.timeout_minutes || 40 }}
     env:
       # for ci/run.sh:
       OS_NAME: ${{ startsWith(matrix.os, 'ubuntu') && 'linux' || (startsWith(matrix.os, 'macos') && 'osx' || (startsWith(matrix.os, 'windows') && 'windows' || '')) }}
@@ -61,7 +62,7 @@ jobs:
           fetch-depth: 50
       - name: Clone DMD
         run: |
-          set -uexo pipefail
+          set -uxo pipefail
 
           ref='${{ github.ref }}'
           if [[ "$ref" =~ ^refs/pull/ ]]; then
@@ -77,7 +78,13 @@ jobs:
             exit 1
           fi
 
-          git clone --branch "$REPO_BRANCH" --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd
+          # Clone DMD: try the specific branch, fall back to master if it doesn't exist
+          if git clone --branch "$REPO_BRANCH" --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd 2>/dev/null; then
+            echo "Cloned dlang/dmd branch: $REPO_BRANCH"
+          else
+            echo "Branch '$REPO_BRANCH' not found; cloning master instead"
+            git clone --branch master --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd
+          fi
 
       - name: Set environment variable N (parallelism)
         run: echo "N=$(${{ runner.os == 'macOS' && 'sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu' || 'nproc' }})" >> $GITHUB_ENV
@@ -177,7 +184,13 @@ jobs:
               exit 1
             fi
 
-            git clone --branch "$REPO_BRANCH" --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd
+            # Clone DMD: try requested branch, fall back to master if missing
+            if git clone --branch "$REPO_BRANCH" --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd 2>/dev/null; then
+              echo "Cloned dlang/dmd branch: $REPO_BRANCH"
+            else
+              echo "Branch '$REPO_BRANCH' not found; cloning master instead"
+              git clone --branch master --depth 1 https://github.com/dlang/dmd.git ../dmd
+            fi
             echo '::endgroup::'
 
             cd ../dmd