Inject the app version during the build

debian/rules

@@ -1,4 +1,13 @@
 #!/usr/bin/make -f
 
+DEB_VERSION := $(shell dpkg-parsechangelog | egrep '^Version:' | cut -f 2 -d ' ')
+
 %:
-	dh ${@} --with python2
+	dh ${@} --with-python2
+
+# Inject version number in the code
+override_dh_installdeb:
+	dh_installdeb
+	for pkg in $$(dh_listpackages -i); do \
+		find debian/$$pkg -type f -exec sed -i -e s/__DEB_VERSION__/$(DEB_VERSION)/g {} +; \
+	done

usr/lib/linuxmint/mintMenu/mintMenu.py

@@ -672,10 +672,7 @@ class MenuWin(object):
     def showAboutDialog(self, action, userdata = None):
         about = Gtk.AboutDialog()
         about.set_name("mintMenu")
-        import subprocess
-        (stdout, stderr) = subprocess.Popen(["/usr/lib/python3/dist-packages/mintcommon/version.py", "mintmenu"],
-            stdout=subprocess.PIPE).communicate()
-        about.set_version(stdout.strip())
+        about.set_version("__DEB_VERSION__")
         try:
             gpl = open('/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL','r').read()
             about.set_license(gpl)