diff --git a/app-shells/bashdb/bashdb-5.1_pre20240617.ebuild b/app-shells/bashdb/bashdb-5.1_pre20240617.ebuild
index aa4a37d1a14e9..2468ebc8a2a9d 100644
--- a/app-shells/bashdb/bashdb-5.1_pre20240617.ebuild
+++ b/app-shells/bashdb/bashdb-5.1_pre20240617.ebuild
@@ -3,6 +3,14 @@
 
 EAPI=8
 
+# Set to 1 for older versions of bash (that are hence slotted)
+BASH_IS_SLOTTED=1
+
+if [[ ${BASH_IS_SLOTTED} == 1 ]] ; then
+	BASH_SLOT="${PV:0:3}"
+else
+	BASH_SLOT="0"
+fi
 MY_P="${PN}-${PV:0:3}-${PV:4}"
 DESCRIPTION="bash source code debugging"
 HOMEPAGE="http://bashdb.sourceforge.net/"
@@ -28,7 +36,7 @@ LICENSE="GPL-2"
 SLOT="0"
 KEYWORDS="~amd64 ~ppc ~ppc64 ~x86"
 
-DEPEND="app-shells/bash:${PV:0:3}"
+DEPEND=">=app-shells/bash-${BASH_SLOT}:${BASH_SLOT}"
 RDEPEND="${DEPEND}"
 
 # test-bug-loc fails with formatting differences
@@ -44,9 +52,14 @@ src_prepare() {
 }
 
 src_configure() {
+	local bash_suffix
+	if [[ ${BASH_IS_SLOTTED} == 1 ]] ; then
+		bash_suffix="-${BASH_SLOT}"
+	fi
+
 	# This path matches the bash sources.  If we ever change bash,
 	# we'll probably have to change this to match (bug #591994).
 	CONFIG_SHELL="${BROOT}"/bin/bash econf \
-		--with-bash="${EPREFIX}"/bin/bash-${PV:0:3} \
+		--with-bash="${EPREFIX}"/bin/bash${bash_suffix} \
 		--with-dbg-main='$(PKGDATADIR)/bashdb-main.inc'
 }