diff --git a/pkg/buildbot_pkg.py b/pkg/buildbot_pkg.py
index <HASH>..<HASH> 100644
--- a/pkg/buildbot_pkg.py
+++ b/pkg/buildbot_pkg.py
@@ -60,10 +60,10 @@ def getVersion(init_file):
             v = VERSION_MATCH.search(out)
             if v:
                 version = v.group(1)
-        return version
+                return version
     except OSError:
         pass
-    return "latest"
+    return "999.0-version-not-found"
 
 
 # JS build strategy:
buildbot_pkg: return valid version instead of latest

Yet we return a big number to make sure this is not confused with a real version

There are some use cases uncovered by the current method:

If a developer clones the source tree without fetching the tags, git describe
will not find the latest tag.

This would be incorrect to prevent installation in those cases.