diff --git a/patches/setuptools-rust-setup-py.patch b/patches/setuptools-rust-setup-py.patch
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..c79fd34a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/patches/setuptools-rust-setup-py.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
+commit 61401d62c557246600b45d09d471450e97b8c6f0
+Author: Catalin Patulea <cronos586@gmail.com>
+Date:   Sat Jan 27 11:32:52 2024 +0000
+
+    Add skeleton setup.py.
+
+diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
+new file mode 100755
+index 0000000..851cb3f
+--- /dev/null
++++ b/setup.py
+@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
++#!/usr/bin/env python3
++from setuptools import setup
++setup()
+\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/xpra-python3.modules b/xpra-python3.modules
index 423e7aa3..d1b1a694 100644
--- a/xpra-python3.modules
+++ b/xpra-python3.modules
@@ -171,7 +171,9 @@
 		<branch
 			module="s/setuptools-rust/setuptools-rust-1.8.1.tar.gz"
 			hash="sha256:94b1dd5d5308b3138d5b933c3a2b55e6d6927d1a22632e509fcea9ddd0f7e486"
-			version="1.8.1"/>
+			version="1.8.1">
+			<patch file="setuptools-rust-setup-py.patch" strip="1"/>
+		</branch>
 		<dependencies>
 			<dep package="python3"/>
 			<dep package="python3-semantic-version"/>