diff -up cogl-1.8.2/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-glx.c.jx cogl-1.8.2/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-glx.c
--- cogl-1.8.2/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-glx.c.jx	2011-11-03 16:58:15.000000000 -0400
+++ cogl-1.8.2/cogl/winsys/cogl-winsys-glx.c	2011-11-03 17:28:23.313469639 -0400
@@ -418,8 +418,15 @@ update_winsys_features (CoglContext *con
                     TRUE);
 
   if (glx_renderer->pf_glXCopySubBuffer || context->glBlitFramebuffer)
-    COGL_FLAGS_SET (context->winsys_features,
-                    COGL_WINSYS_FEATURE_SWAP_REGION, TRUE);
+    {
+      /* hack hack hack hack.  llvmpipe's support for both is broken */
+      const GLubyte *renderer = context->glGetString (GL_RENDERER);
+      if (!strstr (renderer, "llvmpipe"))
+	{
+	  COGL_FLAGS_SET (context->winsys_features,
+			  COGL_WINSYS_FEATURE_SWAP_REGION, TRUE);
+	}
+    }
 
   /* Note: glXCopySubBuffer and glBlitFramebuffer won't be throttled
    * by the SwapInterval so we have to throttle swap_region requests