diff --git a/fail2ban/edit_config.cgi b/fail2ban/edit_config.cgi
index c5eb80a86..c4e0acde5 100755
--- a/fail2ban/edit_config.cgi
+++ b/fail2ban/edit_config.cgi
@@ -19,9 +19,10 @@ print &ui_form_start("save_config.cgi", "post");
 print &ui_table_start($text{'config_header'}, undef, 2);
 
 # Logging level
-my $loglevel = &find_value("loglevel", $def) || 3;
+my $logsymbsupp = &compare_version_numbers(&get_fail2ban_version(), "0.9") >= 0;
+my $loglevel = &find_value("loglevel", $def) || ($logsymbsupp ? "INFO" : 3);
 my @loglevels;
-if (&compare_version_numbers(&get_fail2ban_version(), "0.9") >= 0) {
+if ($logsymbsupp) {
 	@loglevels = ( "CRITICAL", "ERROR", "WARNING",
 		       "NOTICE", "INFO", "DEBUG" );
 	}
diff --git a/fail2ban/fail2ban-lib.pl b/fail2ban/fail2ban-lib.pl
index 4802220fc..03f1e8989 100644
--- a/fail2ban/fail2ban-lib.pl
+++ b/fail2ban/fail2ban-lib.pl
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ foreach my $f (reverse(@all_files_for_lock)) {
 sub get_fail2ban_version
 {
 my $out = &backquote_command("$config{'client_cmd'} -V 2>/dev/null </dev/null");
-return !$? && $out =~ /v([0-9\.]+)/ ? $1 : undef;
+return !$? && $out =~ /v?([0-9\.]+)/ ? $1 : undef;
 }
 
 # Unblock given IP in given jail