diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/release.yml b/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
index 492fc566..a8c3a1f4 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/release.yml
@@ -239,9 +239,16 @@ jobs:
           # container itself: the run: shell is dash (rule 81), where the
           # old `/dev/tcp` probe never connects and the loop silently
           # burned its full two minutes on every run.
+          #
+          # Over TCP (-h 127.0.0.1), not the unix socket (#5426). On first
+          # boot the image's entrypoint runs initdb under a temporary server
+          # that listens on the socket only, then stops it and starts the
+          # real one. A socket probe can catch the temporary server, and the
+          # next step then meets "the database system is shutting down".
+          # Only the real server listens on TCP.
           ready=""
           for i in $(seq 1 60); do
-            if docker exec "$PG_ID" pg_isready -U minstrel -d minstrel_test -q; then ready=1; break; fi
+            if docker exec "$PG_ID" pg_isready -h 127.0.0.1 -U minstrel -d minstrel_test -q; then ready=1; break; fi
             sleep 2
           done
           test -n "$ready" || { echo "FATAL: postgres never became ready"; exit 1; }
@@ -259,13 +266,25 @@ jobs:
           #  - fsync / full_page_writes are sighup GUCs and
           #    synchronous_commit is user-context, so pg_reload_conf() picks
           #    all three up with no restart.
-          # Non-fatal: a perms surprise degrades to "slower", never red CI.
-          docker exec "$PG_ID" psql -U minstrel -d minstrel_test \
-            -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET fsync = off" \
-            -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET synchronous_commit = off" \
-            -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET full_page_writes = off" \
-            -c "SELECT pg_reload_conf()" \
-            || echo "WARN: durability relax failed; continuing"
+          # Non-fatal: a failure degrades to "slower", never red CI. But
+          # slower is ~15x on internal/api (#5426), so retry a few times and
+          # print what took effect.
+          relaxed=""
+          for i in 1 2 3 4 5; do
+            if docker exec -e PGPASSWORD=minstrel "$PG_ID" psql -h 127.0.0.1 -U minstrel -d minstrel_test \
+                 -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET fsync = off" \
+                 -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET synchronous_commit = off" \
+                 -c "ALTER SYSTEM SET full_page_writes = off" \
+                 -c "SELECT pg_reload_conf()"; then relaxed=1; break; fi
+            sleep 2
+          done
+          if [ -n "$relaxed" ]; then
+            docker exec -e PGPASSWORD=minstrel "$PG_ID" psql -h 127.0.0.1 -U minstrel -d minstrel_test -At \
+              -c "SELECT 'durability: ' || string_agg(name || '=' || setting, ' ' ORDER BY name) FROM pg_settings WHERE name IN ('fsync','synchronous_commit','full_page_writes')" \
+              || true
+          else
+            echo "::warning::durability relax failed after 5 tries; the suite will run several times slower"
+          fi
 
           # Apply embedded migrations to the fresh test DB, then run the
           # full suite (no -short → integration tests execute). -p 1: