diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index 488f4c0b7..289fecbae 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -16,6 +16,7 @@ Steve Chaplin <stevech1097@yahoo.com.au> Bug fixes for PNG reading
 Tomasz Cholewo <cholewo@ieee-cis.org> Bug fixes
 Manu Cornet <manu@manucornet.net> SVG build fix
 Frederic Crozat <fcrozat@mandriva.com> Fix test suite for OPD platforms (IA64 or PPC64)
+Julien Danjou <julien@danjou.info> XCB fixes
 Radek Doulík <rodo@novell.com> Bug report and test case
 John Ehresman <jpe@wingide.com> Build fixes for win32
 John Ellson <ellson@research.att.com> First font/glyph extents functions
diff --git a/src/cairo-xcb-surface.c b/src/cairo-xcb-surface.c
index 9b7eb4b7f..c63e851e4 100644
--- a/src/cairo-xcb-surface.c
+++ b/src/cairo-xcb-surface.c
@@ -1732,7 +1732,8 @@ _cairo_xcb_surface_create_internal (xcb_connection_t	     *dpy,
 				    int			      depth)
 {
     cairo_xcb_surface_t *surface;
-    const xcb_render_query_version_reply_t *r;
+    const xcb_query_extension_reply_t *er;
+    const xcb_render_query_version_reply_t *r = NULL;
 
     surface = malloc (sizeof (cairo_xcb_surface_t));
     if (surface == NULL)
@@ -1764,7 +1765,10 @@ _cairo_xcb_surface_create_internal (xcb_connection_t	     *dpy,
 	;
     }
 
-    r = xcb_render_util_query_version(dpy);
+    er = xcb_get_extension_data(dpy, &xcb_render_id);
+    if(er && er->present) {
+	r = xcb_render_util_query_version(dpy);
+    }
     if (r) {
 	surface->render_major = r->major_version;
 	surface->render_minor = r->minor_version;