diff --git a/make-debs.sh b/make-debs.sh
index 5a7ca1aff5c8b..ed79df777e5d2 100755
--- a/make-debs.sh
+++ b/make-debs.sh
@@ -16,9 +16,9 @@
 #
 set -xe
 
+. /etc/os-release
 base=${1:-/tmp/release}
-codename=$(lsb_release -sc)
-releasedir=$base/$(lsb_release -si)/WORKDIR
+releasedir=$base/$NAME/WORKDIR
 rm -fr $(dirname $releasedir)
 mkdir -p $releasedir
 #
@@ -60,7 +60,7 @@ dvers="$vers-1"
 cd ceph-$vers
 chvers=$(head -1 debian/changelog | perl -ne 's/.*\(//; s/\).*//; print')
 if [ "$chvers" != "$dvers" ]; then
-   DEBEMAIL="contact@ceph.com" dch -D $codename --force-distribution -b -v "$dvers" "new version"
+   DEBEMAIL="contact@ceph.com" dch -D $VERSION_CODENAME --force-distribution -b -v "$dvers" "new version"
 fi
 #
 # create the packages
@@ -74,18 +74,18 @@ if test $NPROC -gt 1 ; then
 fi
 PATH=/usr/lib/ccache:$PATH dpkg-buildpackage $j -uc -us
 cd ../..
-mkdir -p $codename/conf
-cat > $codename/conf/distributions <<EOF
-Codename: $codename
+mkdir -p $VERSION_CODENAME/conf
+cat > $VERSION_CODENAME/conf/distributions <<EOF
+Codename: $VERSION_CODENAME
 Suite: stable
 Components: main
 Architectures: $(dpkg --print-architecture) source
 EOF
 if [ ! -e conf ]; then
-    ln -s $codename/conf conf
+    ln -s $VERSION_CODENAME/conf conf
 fi
-reprepro --basedir $(pwd) include $codename WORKDIR/*.changes
+reprepro --basedir $(pwd) include $VERSION_CODENAME WORKDIR/*.changes
 #
 # teuthology needs the version in the version file
 #
-echo $dvers > $codename/version
+echo $dvers > $VERSION_CODENAME/version