diff --git a/utils/packpack/packpack-rpm.patch b/utils/packpack/packpack-rpm.patch
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..6d6b0e7f3
--- /dev/null
+++ b/utils/packpack/packpack-rpm.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,10 @@
+--- a/packpack/pack/rpm.mk	2017-05-10 09:53:38.797616947 -0500
++++ b/packpack/pack/rpm.mk	2017-05-10 09:59:26.744409073 -0500
+@@ -26,7 +26,6 @@
+ 		-e 's/Source0:\([ ]*\).*/Source0: $(TARBALL)/' \
+ 		-e 's/%setup.*/%setup -q -n $(PRODUCT)-$(VERSION)/' \
+                 -re 's/(%autosetup.*)( -n \S*)(.*)/\1\3/' \
+-		-e '0,/%autosetup.*/ s/%autosetup.*/%autosetup -n $(PRODUCT)-$(VERSION)/' \
+                 -e '/%changelog/a\* $(THEDATE) $(CHANGELOG_NAME) <$(CHANGELOG_EMAIL)> - $(VERSION)-$(RELEASE)\n\- $(CHANGELOG_TEXT)\n' \
+ 		-i $@.tmp
+ 	grep -F "Version: $(VERSION)" $@.tmp && \
diff --git a/utils/packpack/startpackpack.sh b/utils/packpack/startpackpack.sh
index e2e7df6c2..195121479 100755
--- a/utils/packpack/startpackpack.sh
+++ b/utils/packpack/startpackpack.sh
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
 # General sanity checks
 checksanity () {
     # Check to see if this script has access to all the commands it needs
-    for CMD in set echo curl repoquery git ln mkdir rmdir; do
+    for CMD in set echo curl repoquery git ln mkdir rmdir cat patch; do
       type $CMD 2>&1 > /dev/null
 
       if [ $? -ne 0 ]; then
@@ -50,6 +50,12 @@ commonprep () {
         git clone https://github.com/packpack/packpack.git packpack
     fi
 
+    # Patch packpack
+    patch --dry-run --silent -f -p1 < utils/packpack/packpack-rpm.patch
+    if [ $? -eq 0 ]; then
+        patch -p1 < utils/packpack/packpack-rpm.patch
+    fi
+
     # The rpm specfile requires we download the tarball and manually move it into place
     # Might as well do this for Debian as well, rather than git submodule init
     CRUDVER="3.0.10"
@@ -142,10 +148,10 @@ if [ "${TRAVIS_EVENT_TYPE}" == "cron" ] || [ "${TRAVIS}" != "true"  ]; then
     if [ "${OS}" == "el" ] || [ "${OS}" == "fedora" ]; then
         echo "Begin Redhat build..."
 
-        # Set VERSION to x.xx.x e.g. 1.30.2
-        # Set RELEASE to x where x is number of commits since release
+        # Set VERSION to the contents of the version file
+        # Set RELEASE to x where x is number of commits since the release shown on github
         # Creates zoneminder packages in the format: zoneminder-{version}-{release}
-        export VERSION=$(git describe --long --always | sed -n 's/^\([0-9\.]*\)-\([0-9]*\)-\([a-z0-9]*\)/\1/p')
+        export VERSION=$(cat version)
         export RELEASE=$(git describe --long --always | sed -n 's/^\([0-9\.]*\)-\([0-9]*\)-\([a-z0-9]*\)/\2/p')
 
         echo