diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 2bfcb678b89..9153910e8a4 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1537,7 +1537,7 @@ else
   dep_clock = cc.find_library('rt')
 endif
 
-dep_zlib = dependency('zlib', version : '>= 1.2.3',
+dep_zlib = dependency('zlib', version : '>= 1.2.9',
                       allow_fallback: true,
                       required : get_option('zlib'))
 if dep_zlib.found()
diff --git a/src/util/crc32.c b/src/util/crc32.c
index ec5ad2cc94c..59059e4f885 100644
--- a/src/util/crc32.c
+++ b/src/util/crc32.c
@@ -33,10 +33,15 @@
  */
 
 
+#include "crc32.h"
 #ifdef HAVE_ZLIB
 #include <zlib.h>
-#endif
-#include "crc32.h"
+uint32_t
+util_hash_crc32(const void *data, size_t size)
+{
+   return ~crc32_z(0, data, size);
+}
+#else
 
 
 static const uint32_t
@@ -117,18 +122,9 @@ util_hash_crc32(const void *data, size_t size)
    const uint8_t *p = data;
    uint32_t crc = 0xffffffff;
 
-#ifdef HAVE_ZLIB
-   /* Prefer zlib's implementation for better performance.
-    * zlib's uInt is always "unsigned int" while size_t can be 64bit.
-    * Since 1.2.9 there's crc32_z that takes size_t, but use the more
-    * available function to avoid build system complications.
-    */
-   if ((uInt)size == size)
-      return ~crc32(0, data, size);
-#endif
-
    while (size--)
       crc = util_crc32_table[(crc ^ *p++) & 0xff] ^ (crc >> 8);
 
    return crc;
 }
+#endif