diff --git a/tools/setlocalversion b/tools/setlocalversion
index b3f5f28..e11f54f 100755
--- a/tools/setlocalversion
+++ b/tools/setlocalversion
@@ -13,7 +13,8 @@
 	# Do we have an untagged version?
 	if git name-rev --tags HEAD | \
 	   grep -E '^HEAD[[:space:]]+(.*~[0-9]*|undefined)$' > /dev/null; then
-	        git describe | awk -F- '{printf("-%05d-%s", $(NF-1),$(NF))}'
+	        (git describe || git describe --tags || git describe --all --long) \
+				2>/dev/null | awk -F- '{printf("-%05d-%s", $(NF-1),$(NF))}'
 	fi
 
 	# Are there uncommitted changes?