command and conquer them all, don't nod

This is a hotfix release for v1.4.0 that mainly targets an encoding issue.

Fixes

command_runner

• Fixes encoding was not honored unless explicitly disabled
• Use standard ping arguments in tests

elevate

• Use sleep instead of ping sleep emulation on Linux

Misc

• Update github actions to v3
• Removed python 3.5 and 3.6 from linux test matrix since Github won't provide them anymore