diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 22e3cc2d..df66557f 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -121,13 +121,20 @@ class CustomInstall(install):
         """Create symbolic links to executables"""
         # the script which launch the daemon
         for source, dest in self.sh_script_links:
-            if os.path.islink(dest) and os.readlink(dest) != source:
-                os.remove(dest)  # copy_file doesn't force the link update
-            dest_name, copied = copy_file(source, dest, link='sym')
-            assert copied
-            # we change the perm in the same way as in the original install_scripts
-            mode = ((os.stat(dest_name)[ST_MODE]) | 0555) & 07777
-            os.chmod(dest_name, mode)
+            if self.root is None:
+                if os.path.islink(dest) and os.readlink(dest) != source:
+                    os.remove(dest)  # copy_file doesn't force the link update
+                dest_name, copied = copy_file(source, dest, link='sym')
+                assert copied
+                # we change the perm in the same way as in the original install_scripts
+                mode = ((os.stat(dest_name)[ST_MODE]) | 0555) & 07777
+                os.chmod(dest_name, mode)
+            else:
+                # if root is not None, source probably doesn't exist yet
+                # this is not managed by copy_file, so we must use os.symlink directly
+                if os.path.islink(dest):
+                    os.remove(dest)  # symlink doesn't force the link update
+                os.symlink(source, dest)
 
     def run(self):
         ignore_idx = 0 if self.root is None else len(self.root)