diff --git a/src/cairo-gl-info.c b/src/cairo-gl-info.c
index 5b4190e4c..168d19492 100644
--- a/src/cairo-gl-info.c
+++ b/src/cairo-gl-info.c
@@ -38,13 +38,17 @@ _cairo_gl_get_version (void)
     int major, minor;
     const char *version = (const char *) glGetString (GL_VERSION);
     const char *dot = version == NULL ? NULL : strchr (version, '.');
+    const char *major_start = dot;
 
     /* Sanity check */
     if (dot == NULL || dot == version || *(dot + 1) == '\0') {
 	major = 0;
 	minor = 0;
     } else {
-	major = strtol (version, NULL, 10);
+	/* Find the start of the major version in the string */
+	while (major_start > version && *major_start != ' ')
+	    --major_start;
+	major = strtol (major_start, NULL, 10);
 	minor = strtol (dot + 1, NULL, 10);
     }