diff --git a/contrib/make_packages b/contrib/make_packages
index 7574e398d..2c367faf3 100755
--- a/contrib/make_packages
+++ b/contrib/make_packages
@@ -6,11 +6,11 @@ import getpass
 
 if __name__ == '__main__':
 
-    os.chdir(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)))
-    os.chdir('..')
-
-    imp.load_module('electrum', *imp.find_module('../lib'))
-    from electrum.version import ELECTRUM_VERSION as version
+    d = os.path.abspath(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__)), os.pardir))
+    os.chdir(d)
+    v = imp.load_source('version', 'lib/version.py')
+    version = v.ELECTRUM_VERSION
+    print "version", version
 
     # copy dependencies into 'packages' directory
     deps = [