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

@@ -679,9 +679,7 @@ class MenuWin( object ):
 
         about = Gtk.AboutDialog()
         about.set_name("mintMenu")
-        import commands
+        about.set_version("__DEB_VERSION__")
-        version = commands.getoutput("/usr/lib/linuxmint/common/version.py mintmenu")
-        about.set_version(version)
         try:
             h = open('/usr/share/common-licenses/GPL','r')
             s = h.readlines()