diff --git a/docs/installationguide/ubuntu.rst b/docs/installationguide/ubuntu.rst
index 5c0d8bb0b..e561e7477 100644
--- a/docs/installationguide/ubuntu.rst
+++ b/docs/installationguide/ubuntu.rst
@@ -287,19 +287,19 @@ To build the latest master snapshot:
 
 ::
 
-	./do_debian_package.sh `lsb_release -a 2>/dev/null | grep Codename | awk '{print $2}'`  `date +%Y%m%d`01 local master
+	./do_debian_package.sh --snapshot=NOW --branch=master --type=local
 
 
 To build the latest stable release:
 
 ::
 
-	./do_debian_package.sh `lsb_release -a 2>/dev/null | grep Codename | awk '{print $2}'`  `date +%Y%m%d`01 local stable
+	./do_debian_package.sh --snapshot=stable --type=local
 
 
-Note that the ``lsb_release -a 2>/dev/null | grep Codename | awk '{print $2}'``
-part simply extracts your distribution name - like "vivid", "trusty" etc. You
-can always replace it by your distro name if you know it. As far as the script
+Note that the distribution will be guessed using ``lsb_release -a 2>/dev/null | grep Codename | awk '{print $2}'``
+which simply extracts your distribution name - like "vivid", "trusty" etc. You
+can always specify it using --distro=your distro name if you know it. As far as the script
 goes, it checks if your distro is "trusty" in which case it pulls in pre-systemd
 release configurations and if its not "trusty" it assumes its based on systemd
 and pulls in systemd related config files.
diff --git a/utils/do_debian_package.sh b/utils/do_debian_package.sh
index 194499af2..acc412550 100755
--- a/utils/do_debian_package.sh
+++ b/utils/do_debian_package.sh
@@ -63,6 +63,11 @@ if [ "$TYPE" == "" ]; then
   TYPE="source";
 fi;
 
+if [ "$DISTRO" == "" ]; then
+  DISTRO=`lsb_release -a 2>/dev/null | grep Codename | awk '{print $2}'`;
+  echo "Defaulting to $DISTRO for distribution";
+fi;
+
 # Release is a special mode...  it uploads to the release ppa and cannot have a snapshot
 if [ "$RELEASE" != "" ]; then
   if [ "$SNAPSHOT" != "" ]; then