--- src/config/makefile.h.orig
+++ src/config/makefile.h
@@ -2630,12 +2630,12 @@ else
   GOTPYTHON2 := $(shell command -v python2 2> /dev/null)
   GOTPYTHON  := $(shell command -v python 2> /dev/null)
   ifdef GOTPYTHON3
-    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python3 -V 2>&1 |cut -c 8-10)
+    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python3 -c 'import sys; print("{}.{}".format(sys.version_info.major, sys.version_info.minor))')
   else ifdef GOTPYTHON2
-    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python2 -V 2>&1 |cut -c 8-10)
+    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python2 -c 'import sys; print("{}.{}".format(sys.version_info.major, sys.version_info.minor))')
   else ifdef GOTPYTHON
 #last try at python2
-    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python -V 2>&1 |cut -c 8-10)
+    PYTHONVERSION=$(shell python -c 'import sys; print("{}.{}".format(sys.version_info.major, sys.version_info.minor))')
   else
 errorpython3:
 $(info )
--- src/python/task_python.c.orig
+++ src/python/task_python.c
@@ -3,7 +3,11 @@
 #include "ga.h"
 
 #include <import.h>
+#if ( PY_MAJOR_VERSION >= 3 && PY_MINOR_VERSION >= 9)
+/* might require new headers and code */
+#else
 #include <graminit.h>
+#endif
 #include <pythonrun.h>
 #include <stdlib.h>
 #include "typesf2c.h"