diff --git a/ChangeLog b/ChangeLog
index 6cc921bd9..b06c5cb79 100644
--- a/ChangeLog
+++ b/ChangeLog
@@ -25,6 +25,9 @@
    the correct value from Scintilla and use it (this fixes a display
    problem with Perl code like 'sub test()').
    Add missing styles for filetype Perl.
+ * doc/Makefile.am, wscript:
+   When generating documentation, first try rst2html.py as it is
+   the upstream default.
 
 
 2008-09-27  Enrico Tröger  <enrico(dot)troeger(at)uvena(dot)de>
diff --git a/doc/Makefile.am b/doc/Makefile.am
index 5ad2fe5f6..5531b243a 100644
--- a/doc/Makefile.am
+++ b/doc/Makefile.am
@@ -13,7 +13,9 @@ pdf: geany.txt
 api-doc: Doxyfile
 	doxygen
 
+# when generating documentation, first try rst2html.py as it is the upstream default
 doc: geany.txt
+	rst2html.py -stg --stylesheet=geany.css $(srcdir)/geany.txt geany.html || \
 	rst2html -stg --stylesheet=geany.css $(srcdir)/geany.txt geany.html
 
 doc-clean:
diff --git a/wscript b/wscript
index f0cd2d1cc..a258c64c6 100644
--- a/wscript
+++ b/wscript
@@ -438,8 +438,12 @@ def shutdown():
 
     if Options.options.htmldoc:
         os.chdir('doc')
-        launch('rst2html -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
+        # first try rst2html.py as it is the upstream default
+        ret = launch('rst2html.py -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
             'Generating HTML documentation')
+        if not ret == 0:
+            launch('rst2html -stg --stylesheet=geany.css geany.txt geany.html',
+                    'Generating HTML documentation (using fallback "rst2html")')
 
     if Options.options.update_po:
         # the following code was taken from midori's WAF script, thanks
@@ -467,6 +471,9 @@ def launch(command, status, success_color='GREEN'):
     Utils.pprint(success_color, status)
     try:
         ret = subprocess.call(command.split())
+    except OSError, e:
+        ret = 1
+        print str(e), ":", command
     except:
         ret = 1