diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yml b/.github/workflows/release.yml
index 419d4a1b3..e0d08fe62 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yml
@@ -98,18 +98,28 @@ jobs:
     - uses: actions/checkout@v3
       with:
         submodules: true
+    - name: Configure
+      run: |
+          apt update && apt install -y debhelper
     - name: Build artifacts
       run: |
           # Work around https://github.com/actions/checkout/issues/766
           git config --global --add safe.directory "$GITHUB_WORKSPACE"
           git describe --always --tags ${{ github.sha }}
           ./tools/release.sh
+          # once the build is over, we want to generate a Debian package
+          ./tools/packaging/generate_debian_package.sh build-opt/dragonfly-x86_64
+    - name: Save artifacts
+      run: |
+          # place all artifacts at the same location
+          mkdir -p results-artifacts
+          mv build-opt/dragonfly-*tar.gz results-artifacts
+          mv dragonfly_*.deb results-artifacts
     - name: Upload
       uses: actions/upload-artifact@v3
       with:
         name: dragonfly-amd64
-        path: build-opt/dragonfly-*tar.gz
-
+        path: results-artifacts/*
   publish_release:
     runs-on: ubuntu-latest
     needs: [build-native, build-qemu]
diff --git a/tools/packaging/generate_changelog.sh b/tools/packaging/generate_changelog.sh
index 90d65668a..c9b772968 100755
--- a/tools/packaging/generate_changelog.sh
+++ b/tools/packaging/generate_changelog.sh
@@ -18,9 +18,16 @@ THIS_DIR=$(dirname ${SCRIPT_ABS_PATH})
 GIT_DIR=$1
 PACKGE_DIR=${THIS_DIR}/debian
 CHANGE_LOG=${PACKGE_DIR}/changelog
-
 cd ${GIT_DIR}
 git config --global --add safe.directory ${GIT_DIR}
+has_tags=$(git tag -l v* | wc -l 2>/dev/null)
+if [ "$has_tags" = "" -o "$has_tags" = "0" ]; then
+	git fetch --all --tags || {
+		echo "failed to fetch tags, cannot build changelog file"
+		exit 1
+	}
+fi
+
 >${CHANGE_LOG}
 prevtag=v0.2.0
 pkgname=`cat ${PACKGE_DIR}/control | grep '^Package: ' | sed 's/^Package: //'`
@@ -28,3 +35,13 @@ git tag -l v* | sort -V | while read tag; do
     (echo "$pkgname (${tag#v}) unstable; urgency=low"; git log --pretty=format:'  * %s' $prevtag..$tag; git log --pretty='format:%n%n -- %aN <%aE>  %aD%n%n' $tag^..$tag) | cat - ${CHANGE_LOG} | sponge ${CHANGE_LOG}
         prevtag=$tag
 done
+if [ -f ${CHANGE_LOG} ]; then
+	haslnes=$(wc -l ${CHANGE_LOG} 2>/dev/null | awk '{print $1}')
+	if [ "$haslnes" = "" ]; then
+		echo "empty file ${CHANGE_LOG}, failed to generate changelog"
+		exit 1
+	fi
+else
+	echo "failed to generate ${CHANGE_LOG}"
+	exit 1
+fi