diff --git a/src/cairo-xlib-surface-shm.c b/src/cairo-xlib-surface-shm.c
index 08169f21a..3e6eaf276 100644
--- a/src/cairo-xlib-surface-shm.c
+++ b/src/cairo-xlib-surface-shm.c
@@ -1121,6 +1121,24 @@ _cairo_xlib_shm_surface_is_idle (cairo_surface_t *surface)
     return shm->idle > 0;
 }
 
+#define XORG_VERSION_ENCODE(major,minor,patch,snap) \
+    (((major) * 10000000) + ((minor) * 100000) + ((patch) * 1000) + snap)
+
+static cairo_bool_t
+xorg_has_buggy_send_event(Display *dpy)
+{
+    /* Avoid incurring the wrath fixed by:
+     *
+     * commit 2d2dce558d24eeea0eb011ec9ebaa6c5c2273c39
+     * Author: Sam Spilsbury <sam.spilsbury@canonical.com>
+     * Date:   Wed Sep 14 09:58:34 2011 +0800
+     *
+     * Remove the SendEvent bit (0x80) before doing range checks on event type.
+     */
+    return (strstr (ServerVendor (dpy), "X.Org") != NULL &&
+	    VendorRelease (dpy) < XORG_VERSION_ENCODE(1,11,0,1));
+}
+
 void
 _cairo_xlib_display_init_shm (cairo_xlib_display_t *display)
 {
@@ -1153,6 +1171,9 @@ _cairo_xlib_display_init_shm (cairo_xlib_display_t *display)
 				 DefaultVisual (display->display, scr),
 				 CWOverrideRedirect, &attr);
 
+    if (xorg_has_buggy_send_event(display->display))
+	has_pixmap = 0;
+
     shm->has_pixmaps = has_pixmap ? MIN_PIXMAP_SIZE : 0;
     cairo_list_init (&shm->pool);