diff --git a/debian/rules b/debian/rules
index 158ec5b..e246262 100755
--- a/debian/rules
+++ b/debian/rules
@@ -2,8 +2,8 @@
 
 # this is so awful
 PAREN = )
-BEEGFS_VERSION = $(shell head -n1 debian/changelog | grep -P --only-matching '(?<=\d:)[^$(PAREN)~]+')
-BEEGFS_MAJOR = $(shell head -n1 debian/changelog | grep -P --only-matching '(?<=\d:)\d+')
+BEEGFS_VERSION = $(shell head -n1 debian/changelog | awk -F'[()]' '{print $2}')
+BEEGFS_MAJOR = $(shell head -n1 debian/changelog | awk -F'[()]' '{split($2,a,"."); print a[1]}')
 
 BEEGFS_NVFS=1
 DPKG_EXPORT_BUILDFLAGS = 1