diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index 6bbdec24..cc4138d0 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@ llvm-toolchain-snapshot (1:10~svn368740-1~exp2) experimental; urgency=medium
 
   * Workaround bug https://bugs.llvm.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42994
     (fails to link on Debian buster)
+  * for Ubuntu xenial: pass PYTHON_EXE to the stage2 build
 
  -- Sylvestre Ledru <sylvestre@debian.org>  Wed, 14 Aug 2019 13:21:54 +0200
 
diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 6ea17377..d779e3b8 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -408,7 +408,7 @@ override_dh_auto_configure: preconfigure
 	-DCLANG_ENABLE_BOOTSTRAP=ON \
 	-DLLVM_TEMPORARILY_ALLOW_OLD_TOOLCHAIN=ON \
 	-DCLANG_VENDOR=$(VENDOR) \
-	-DCLANG_BOOTSTRAP_PASSTHROUGH="CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX;CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE;CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE;CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO;LLVM_LINK_LLVM_DYLIB;LLVM_INSTALL_UTILS;LLVM_VERSION_SUFFIX;LLVM_ENABLE_SPHINX;SPHINX_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS;LLVM_BUILD_LLVM_DYLIB;LLVM_ENABLE_RTTI;LLVM_ENABLE_FFI;LIBCLANG_LIBRARY_VERSION;ENABLE_LINKER_BUILD_ID;POLLY_BUNDLED_JSONCPP;LLVM_EXPERIMENTAL_TARGETS_TO_BUILD;LLVM_USE_PERF;LLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS;LLVM_BINUTILS_INCDIR;LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE;;LLVM_COMPILER_CHECKED;COMPILER_RT_BUILD_BUILTINS;LIBOMP_LIBFLAGS;CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS"
+	-DCLANG_BOOTSTRAP_PASSTHROUGH="CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX;CMAKE_VERBOSE_MAKEFILE;CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE;CMAKE_CXX_FLAGS_RELWITHDEBINFO;LLVM_LINK_LLVM_DYLIB;LLVM_INSTALL_UTILS;LLVM_VERSION_SUFFIX;LLVM_ENABLE_SPHINX;SPHINX_WARNINGS_AS_ERRORS;LLVM_BUILD_LLVM_DYLIB;LLVM_ENABLE_RTTI;LLVM_ENABLE_FFI;LIBCLANG_LIBRARY_VERSION;ENABLE_LINKER_BUILD_ID;POLLY_BUNDLED_JSONCPP;LLVM_EXPERIMENTAL_TARGETS_TO_BUILD;LLVM_USE_PERF;LLVM_ENABLE_ASSERTIONS;LLVM_BINUTILS_INCDIR;LLVM_HOST_TRIPLE;;LLVM_COMPILER_CHECKED;COMPILER_RT_BUILD_BUILTINS;LIBOMP_LIBFLAGS;CMAKE_SHARED_LINKER_FLAGS;PYTHON_EXE"
 
 
 # make