diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 9d888061e10c2b12462574eb71f7bf6212eca69a..56217aa9556b1a16918a253f3cfd8bfa27327969 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -13,6 +13,13 @@ export PYTEST_USENETWORK
 %:
 	dh $@  --with=python2,sphinxdoc --buildsystem=pybuild
 
+override_dh_auto_build:
+	echo "# coding: utf-8" > monkeysign/_version.py
+	echo "# file generated by debian package" >> monkeysign/_version.py
+	echo "# see https://github.com/pypa/setuptools_scm/issues/101" >> monkeysign/_version.py
+	echo "version = '$(shell dpkg-parsechangelog -S version)'" >> monkeysign/_version.py
+	dh_auto_build
+
 override_dh_auto_test:
         # override locale to make sure tests pass
 	LANG=C.UTF-8 dh_auto_test