diff --git a/pkg/static/login.js b/pkg/static/login.js
index 3dd37835d2c..605e2d56cb0 100644
--- a/pkg/static/login.js
+++ b/pkg/static/login.js
@@ -1036,6 +1036,8 @@ function debug(...args) {
                 }
             } else if (xhr.status == 403) {
                 login_failure(_(decodeURIComponent(xhr.statusText)) || _("Permission denied"));
+            } else if (xhr.status == 500 && xhr.statusText.indexOf("no-cockpit") > -1) {
+                login_failure(format(_("A compatible version of Cockpit is not installed on $0."), login_machine || "localhost"));
             } else if (xhr.statusText) {
                 fatal(decodeURIComponent(xhr.statusText));
             } else {
diff --git a/test/verify/check-loopback b/test/verify/check-loopback
index fa106b24d0f..5dab47ac495 100755
--- a/test/verify/check-loopback
+++ b/test/verify/check-loopback
@@ -44,8 +44,7 @@ class TestLoopback(testlib.MachineCase):
         b.set_val('#login-user-input', "admin")
         b.set_val('#login-password-input', "foobar")
         b.click('#login-button')
-        b.wait_visible('#login-fatal')
-        self.assertIn("no-cockpit", b.text('#login-fatal'))
+        b.wait_text("#login-error-message", "A compatible version of Cockpit is not installed on localhost.")
 
         m.disconnect()
         self.restore_dir("/etc/ssh", restart_unit=self.sshd_service)
@@ -53,8 +52,6 @@ class TestLoopback(testlib.MachineCase):
         m.execute(self.restart_sshd)
         m.wait_execute()
 
-        b.reload()
-        b.wait_visible("#login")
         b.set_val('#login-user-input', "admin")
         b.set_val('#login-password-input', "foobar")
         b.click('#login-button')