diff --git a/ci/build-in-docker.sh b/ci/build-in-docker.sh
index b000e69..b237214 100755
--- a/ci/build-in-docker.sh
+++ b/ci/build-in-docker.sh
@@ -63,7 +63,7 @@ apk add bash git gcc g++ cmake make file wget \
     gpgme-dev libgcrypt-dev libgcrypt-static argp-standalone zstd-dev zstd-static util-linux-static \
     glib-static libassuan-static zlib-static libgpg-error-static \
     curl-dev curl-static nghttp2-static libidn2-static openssl-libs-static brotli-static c-ares-static libunistring-static \
-    glib-static glib-dev autoconf automake
+    glib-static glib-dev autoconf automake meson
 
 # libcurl's pkg-config scripts are broken. everywhere, everytime.
 # these additional flags have been collected from all the .pc files whose libs are mentioned as -l<lib> in Libs.private
@@ -75,7 +75,7 @@ echo "Requires.private: libcares libnghttp2 libidn2 libssl openssl libcrypto lib
 # in a Docker container, we can safely disable this check
 git config --global --add safe.directory '*'
 
-bash -euxo pipefail /source/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh 0.27
+bash -euxo pipefail /source/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh 0.28
 bash -euxo pipefail /source/ci/install-static-mksquashfs.sh 4.6.1
 bash -euxo pipefail /source/ci/install-static-zsyncmake.sh 0.6.2
 
diff --git a/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh b/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh
index 40e0a67..f64b10e 100644
--- a/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh
+++ b/ci/install-static-desktop-file-validate.sh
@@ -25,11 +25,9 @@ pushd "$build_dir"
 wget -c "https://gitlab.freedesktop.org/xdg/desktop-file-utils/-/archive/"$version"/desktop-file-utils-"$version".tar.gz"
 tar xf desktop-file-utils-*.tar.gz
 cd desktop-file-utils-*/
-# The next 2 lines are a workaround for: checking build system type... ./config.guess: unable to guess system type
-wget 'http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.guess;hb=HEAD' -O config.guess
-wget 'http://git.savannah.gnu.org/gitweb/?p=config.git;a=blob_plain;f=config.sub;hb=HEAD' -O config.sub
-autoreconf --install # https://github.com/shendurelab/LACHESIS/issues/31#issuecomment-283963819
-./configure CFLAGS=-no-pie LDFLAGS=-static
+
+# setting LDFLAGS as suggested in https://mesonbuild.com/Creating-Linux-binaries.html#building-and-installing
+env LDFLAGS=-static meson setup build --prefer-static --default-library=static
 
 if [[ "${GITHUB_ACTIONS:-}" != "" ]]; then
     jobs="$(nproc)"
@@ -37,11 +35,5 @@ else
     jobs="$(nproc --ignore=1)"
 fi
 
-make -j"$jobs"
-
-# TODO: Find more elegant way to do this
-cd src/
-gcc -static -o desktop-file-validate keyfileutils.o validate.o validator.o mimeutils.o -lglib-2.0 -lintl
-strip desktop-file-validate
-cp desktop-file-validate /usr/bin/
-cd ..
+ninja -C build -j "$jobs" -v
+ninja -C build -j 1 -v install