diff --git a/.travis.yml b/.travis.yml
index 65235616c..45c4cc154 100644
--- a/.travis.yml
+++ b/.travis.yml
@@ -120,7 +120,11 @@ matrix:
     - env: PAGMO_BUILD="OSXPython27"
       os: osx
       osx_image: xcode6.4
-    - env: PAGMO_BUILD="manylinux64Py27" DOCKER_IMAGE="quay.io/pypa/manylinux1_x86_64"
+    - env: PAGMO_BUILD="manylinux64Py27m" DOCKER_IMAGE="quay.io/pypa/manylinux1_x86_64"
+      sudo: required
+      services:
+      - docker
+    - env: PAGMO_BUILD="manylinux64Py27mu" DOCKER_IMAGE="quay.io/pypa/manylinux1_x86_64"
       sudo: required
       services:
       - docker
diff --git a/doc/sphinx/changelog.rst b/doc/sphinx/changelog.rst
index bb054d3bd..9d50deba2 100644
--- a/doc/sphinx/changelog.rst
+++ b/doc/sphinx/changelog.rst
@@ -7,6 +7,8 @@ Changelog
 New
 ~~~
 
+- Enable the ``py27m`` build variant for the manylinux packages (`#239 <https://github.com/esa/pagmo2/pull/239>`__).
+
 - It is now possible to select a serialization backend other than cloudpickle. The other available
   backends are the standard :mod:`pickle` module and `dill <https://pypi.org/project/dill/>`__
   (`#229 <https://github.com/esa/pagmo2/pull/229>`__).
diff --git a/tools/install_docker.sh b/tools/install_docker.sh
index f84a57f70..41b2d731d 100644
--- a/tools/install_docker.sh
+++ b/tools/install_docker.sh
@@ -17,8 +17,10 @@ elif [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *36 ]]; then
 	PYTHON_DIR="cp36-cp36m"
 elif [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *35 ]]; then
 	PYTHON_DIR="cp35-cp35m"
-elif [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *27 ]]; then
+elif [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *27mu ]]; then
 	PYTHON_DIR="cp27-cp27mu"
+elif [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *27m ]]; then
+	PYTHON_DIR="cp27-cp27m"
 else
 	echo "Invalid build type: ${PAGMO_BUILD}"
 	exit 1
@@ -77,10 +79,17 @@ cd nlopt-${NLOPT_VERSION}
 make -j2 install > /dev/null
 cd ..
 
-# Python deps
-/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/pip install cloudpickle dill numpy ipyparallel
-/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/ipcluster start --daemonize=True
-sleep 20
+# Python mandatory deps.
+/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/pip install cloudpickle numpy
+# Python optional deps.
+if [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} != *27m ]]; then
+	# NOTE: do not install the optional deps for the py27m build: some of the deps
+	# don't have binary wheels available for py27m, which makes pip try to
+	# install them from source (which fails).
+	/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/pip install dill ipyparallel
+	/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/ipcluster start --daemonize=True
+	sleep 20
+fi
 
 # pagmo & pygmo
 cd /pagmo2
@@ -101,7 +110,13 @@ auditwheel repair dist/pygmo* -w ./dist2
 # Try to install it and run the tests.
 cd /
 /opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/pip install /pagmo2/build/wheel/dist2/pygmo*
-/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/python -c "import pygmo; pygmo.test.run_test_suite(1)"
+if [[ ${PAGMO_BUILD} == *27m ]]; then
+	# NOTE: for the py27m build we don't have ipyparallel installed,
+	# which will make some tests fail. Just try to import pygmo in this case.
+	/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/python -c "import pygmo"
+else
+	/opt/python/${PYTHON_DIR}/bin/python -c "import pygmo; pygmo.test.run_test_suite(1)"
+fi
 
 # Upload to pypi. This variable will contain something if this is a tagged build (vx.y.z), otherwise it will be empty.
 export PAGMO_RELEASE_VERSION=`echo "${TRAVIS_TAG}"|grep -E 'v[0-9]+\.[0-9]+.*'|cut -c 2-`