Is there really a need for packed-refs to exist for rsync://?

Trying to clone a repository using its rsync:// URL I'm getting this
error message:

[...]
sent 150 bytes  received 363603747 bytes  80800866.00 bytes/sec
total size is 363559095  speedup is 1.00
rsync: link_stat "/scm/upstream-linus.git/packed-refs" (in pub) failed: No such file or directory (2)
rsync error: some files could not be transferred (code 23) at main.c(1385) [receiver=2.6.9]
fatal: Could not run rsync to get refs
$

The same repository can be cloned with no problem using its git:// and
http:// URLs so I guess the rsync:// method is broken here.  This is
using git 1.5.4.1.

Cheers,

  Ralf