diff --git a/dev/create-release/do-release-docker.sh b/dev/create-release/do-release-docker.sh
index 694a87bf7808..4a003d7e07de 100755
--- a/dev/create-release/do-release-docker.sh
+++ b/dev/create-release/do-release-docker.sh
@@ -93,7 +93,7 @@ done
 
 GPG_KEY_FILE="$WORKDIR/gpg.key"
 fcreate_secure "$GPG_KEY_FILE"
-$GPG --export-secret-key --armor "$GPG_KEY" > "$GPG_KEY_FILE"
+$GPG --export-secret-key --armor --pinentry-mode loopback --passphrase "$GPG_PASSPHRASE" "$GPG_KEY" > "$GPG_KEY_FILE"
 
 run_silent "Building spark-rm image with tag $IMGTAG..." "docker-build.log" \
   docker build -t "spark-rm:$IMGTAG" --build-arg UID=$UID "$SELF/spark-rm"
diff --git a/dev/create-release/release-util.sh b/dev/create-release/release-util.sh
index 1282e15e7991..8ee94a67f34f 100755
--- a/dev/create-release/release-util.sh
+++ b/dev/create-release/release-util.sh
@@ -159,10 +159,14 @@ function get_release_info {
   export SPARK_PACKAGE_VERSION="$RELEASE_TAG"
 
   # Gather some user information.
-  export ASF_USERNAME=$(read_config "ASF user" "$LOGNAME")
+  if [ -z "$ASF_USERNAME" ]; then
+    export ASF_USERNAME=$(read_config "ASF user" "$LOGNAME")
+  fi
 
-  GIT_NAME=$(git config user.name || echo "")
-  export GIT_NAME=$(read_config "Full name" "$GIT_NAME")
+  if [ -z "$GIT_NAME" ]; then
+    GIT_NAME=$(git config user.name || echo "")
+    export GIT_NAME=$(read_config "Full name" "$GIT_NAME")
+  fi
 
   export GIT_EMAIL="$ASF_USERNAME@apache.org"
   export GPG_KEY=$(read_config "GPG key" "$GIT_EMAIL")
diff --git a/dev/create-release/spark-rm/Dockerfile b/dev/create-release/spark-rm/Dockerfile
index 63451687ee8c..540dc90f4281 100644
--- a/dev/create-release/spark-rm/Dockerfile
+++ b/dev/create-release/spark-rm/Dockerfile
@@ -33,8 +33,8 @@ ENV DEBCONF_NONINTERACTIVE_SEEN true
 # These arguments are just for reuse and not really meant to be customized.
 ARG APT_INSTALL="apt-get install --no-install-recommends -y"
 
-ARG BASE_PIP_PKGS="setuptools wheel"
-ARG PIP_PKGS="pyopenssl numpy sphinx"
+ARG PIP_PKGS="sphinx==2.3.1 mkdocs==1.0.4 numpy==1.18.1"
+ARG GEM_PKGS="jekyll:4.0.0 jekyll-redirect-from:0.16.0 rouge:3.15.0"
 
 # Install extra needed repos and refresh.
 # - CRAN repo
@@ -62,12 +62,11 @@ RUN apt-get clean && apt-get update && $APT_INSTALL gnupg ca-certificates && \
   curl -sL https://deb.nodesource.com/setup_11.x | bash && \
   $APT_INSTALL nodejs && \
   # Install needed python packages. Use pip for installing packages (for consistency).
-  $APT_INSTALL libpython3-dev python3-pip && \
+  $APT_INSTALL libpython3-dev python3-pip python3-setuptools && \
   # Change default python version to python3.
   update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python2.7 1 && \
   update-alternatives --install /usr/bin/python python /usr/bin/python3.6 2 && \
   update-alternatives --set python /usr/bin/python3.6 && \
-  pip3 install $BASE_PIP_PKGS && \
   pip3 install $PIP_PKGS && \
   # Install R packages and dependencies used when building.
   # R depends on pandoc*, libssl (which are installed above).
@@ -76,10 +75,8 @@ RUN apt-get clean && apt-get update && $APT_INSTALL gnupg ca-certificates && \
   Rscript -e "install.packages(c('curl', 'xml2', 'httr', 'devtools', 'testthat', 'knitr', 'rmarkdown', 'roxygen2', 'e1071', 'survival'), repos='https://cloud.r-project.org/')" && \
   Rscript -e "devtools::install_github('jimhester/lintr')" && \
   # Install tools needed to build the documentation.
-  $APT_INSTALL ruby2.3 ruby2.3-dev mkdocs && \
-  gem install jekyll --no-rdoc --no-ri -v 3.8.6 && \
-  gem install jekyll-redirect-from -v 0.15.0 && \
-  gem install rouge
+  $APT_INSTALL ruby2.5 ruby2.5-dev && \
+  gem install --no-document $GEM_PKGS
 
 WORKDIR /opt/spark-rm/output