diff --git a/debian/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules b/debian/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
index 123031e6f..5853ba38f 100755
--- a/debian/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
@@ -18,5 +18,11 @@ DEB_CMAKE_EXTRA_FLAGS := \
 
 DH_PYTHON2 = $(if $(wildcard /usr/bin/dh_python2),dh_python2,dh_pysupport)
 
+post-patches::
+	# make sure that python binary exists
+	# since the existing code is still dependent on python2
+	# and cdbs uses python as the default binary name
+	test -x /usr/bin/python || ln -s python2 /usr/bin/python
+
 binary-install/desktop-effects-tde-trinity::
 	${DH_PYTHON2} -pdesktop-effects-tde-trinity
diff --git a/ubuntu/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules b/ubuntu/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
index 123031e6f..5853ba38f 100755
--- a/ubuntu/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
+++ b/ubuntu/_base/applications/misc/desktop-effects-tde/debian/rules
@@ -18,5 +18,11 @@ DEB_CMAKE_EXTRA_FLAGS := \
 
 DH_PYTHON2 = $(if $(wildcard /usr/bin/dh_python2),dh_python2,dh_pysupport)
 
+post-patches::
+	# make sure that python binary exists
+	# since the existing code is still dependent on python2
+	# and cdbs uses python as the default binary name
+	test -x /usr/bin/python || ln -s python2 /usr/bin/python
+
 binary-install/desktop-effects-tde-trinity::
 	${DH_PYTHON2} -pdesktop-effects-tde-trinity