diff --git a/doc/requirements.txt b/doc/requirements.txt
index 1a76d822..da9eda35 100644
--- a/doc/requirements.txt
+++ b/doc/requirements.txt
@@ -1,8 +1,4 @@
-# The order of packages is significant, because pip processes them in the order
-# of appearance. Changing the order has an impact on the overall integration
-# process, which may cause wedges in the gate later.
-
-sphinx>=1.8.0,!=2.1.0 # BSD
+sphinx>=1.8.0 # BSD
 sphinxcontrib-apidoc>=0.2.0  # BSD
 openstackdocstheme>=1.20.0 # Apache-2.0
 reno>=2.5.0 # Apache-2.0
diff --git a/setup.cfg b/setup.cfg
index ebf2f0d1..7d1a5b86 100644
--- a/setup.cfg
+++ b/setup.cfg
@@ -28,7 +28,7 @@ classifier =
 # e.g.: oslo.config[generator]
 rst-generator =
     rst2txt>=1.1.0 # BSD
-    sphinx>=1.8.0,!=2.1.0 # BSD
+    sphinx>=1.8.0 # BSD
 
 [files]
 packages =
diff --git a/test-requirements.txt b/test-requirements.txt
index 8fcdd841..e4fcd925 100644
--- a/test-requirements.txt
+++ b/test-requirements.txt
@@ -12,10 +12,7 @@ mypy>=0.720 # MIT
 # test environment.
 oslo.log>=3.36.0  # Apache-2.0
 
-# when we can require tox>= 1.4, this can go into tox.ini:
-#  [testenv:cover]
-#  deps = {[testenv]deps} coverage
-coverage!=4.4,>=4.0 # Apache-2.0
+coverage>=4.0 # Apache-2.0
 
 requests_mock>=1.5.0 # Apache-2.0