diff --git a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
index 8741ca2..5a0f929 100644
--- a/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
+++ b/.gitea/workflows/ci.yml
@@ -16,10 +16,22 @@ jobs:
 
       - name: Install V
         run: |
-          curl -sL https://github.com/vlang/v/releases/latest/download/v_linux.zip -o /tmp/v.zip
-          unzip -q /tmp/v.zip -d /opt/v
-          ln -s /opt/v/v /usr/local/bin/v
-          v version
+          set -e
+          echo "Trying to download V from GitHub..."
+          if curl -fsSL --connect-timeout 10 https://github.com/vlang/v/releases/latest/download/v_linux.zip -o /tmp/v.zip; then
+            unzip -q /tmp/v.zip -d /opt/v
+            ln -s /opt/v/v /usr/local/bin/v
+          else
+            echo "GitHub unreachable — installing V from source (no submodules)..."
+            git clone --depth 1 --single-branch --recurse-submodules=no https://github.com/vlang/v /opt/v 2>/dev/null || true
+            if [ -f /opt/v/v ]; then
+              ln -s /opt/v/v /usr/local/bin/v
+            else
+              cd /opt/v && make without_tcc 2>/dev/null || make 2>/dev/null || true
+              ln -s /opt/v/v /usr/local/bin/v 2>/dev/null || true
+            fi
+          fi
+          echo "V version:" && v version
 
       - name: Build Linux x86_64
         run: |