diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ddbecb89343410268f5ce1ce39e44da8ed44adc3..797abbf66e25a3c0cfe9eaa02262e0ffd3c644a0 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -5,13 +5,19 @@ import setuptools
 SCRIPT_DIR = os.path.dirname(os.path.realpath(__file__))
 os.chdir(SCRIPT_DIR)
 
-with open('README.rst', 'r') as f:
-    long_description = f.read()
+try:
+    with open('README.rst', 'r') as f:
+        long_description = f.read()
+except FileNotFoundError:
+    long_description = "README file not found or couldn't be read."
 
-with open('src/oebuild/version.py', 'r') as f:
-    __version__ = None
-    exec(f.read())
-    assert __version__ is not None
+try:
+    with open('src/oebuild/version.py', 'r') as f:
+        exec(f.read())
+        if __version__ is None:
+            raise ValueError("__version__ is not defined in version.py")
+except (FileNotFoundError, ValueError):
+    __version__ = "Unknown"
 
 version = os.environ.get('OEBUILD_VERSION', __version__)