--- a/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/PsychtoolboxVersion.m
+++ b/Psychtoolbox/PsychBasic/PsychtoolboxVersion.m
@@ -93,7 +93,22 @@ if ~isfield(Psychtoolbox,'version')
     Psychtoolbox.version.major=cvv(1);
     Psychtoolbox.version.minor=cvv(2);
     Psychtoolbox.version.point=cvv(3);
-    
+
+    if any(strcmp(PsychtoolboxRoot, {'/usr/share/octave/site/m/psychtoolbox-3/', '/usr/share/matlab/site/m/psychtoolbox-3/'}))
+        % It is a Debian version of the package
+        Psychtoolbox.version.flavor = 'Debian package';
+        [status, result] = system('zcat /usr/share/doc/psychtoolbox-3-common/changelog.Debian.gz| head -1 | sed -e "s/).*/)/g"');
+        if status == 0
+            Psychtoolbox.version.revstring = result(1:end-1);
+        else
+            Psychtoolbox.version.revstring = 'WARNING: failed to obtain Debian revision';
+        end
+
+        % Build final version string:
+        Psychtoolbox.version.string = sprintf('%d.%d.%d - Flavor: %s - %s\nFor more info visit:\n%s', Psychtoolbox.version.major, Psychtoolbox.version.minor, Psychtoolbox.version.point, ...
+                                              Psychtoolbox.version.flavor, Psychtoolbox.version.revstring, 'http://neuro.debian.net/pkgs/octave-psychtoolbox-3.html');
+
+    else
     % Additional parser code for SVN information. This is slooow!
     svncmdpath = GetSubversionPath;
     
@@ -179,6 +194,7 @@ if ~isfield(Psychtoolbox,'version')
         ss=s(n:end);
         Psychtoolbox.date=ss(min(find(ss-' ')):end); %#ok<MXFND>
     end
+    end
 end
 versionString=Psychtoolbox.version.string;
 versionStructure=Psychtoolbox.version;
