diff --git a/easybuild/easyblocks/i/intel_compilers.py b/easybuild/easyblocks/i/intel_compilers.py
index d1839a7a7b..56cfe65f0b 100644
--- a/easybuild/easyblocks/i/intel_compilers.py
+++ b/easybuild/easyblocks/i/intel_compilers.py
@@ -33,7 +33,7 @@
 from easybuild.easyblocks.generic.intelbase import IntelBase
 from easybuild.easyblocks.t.tbb import get_tbb_gccprefix
 from easybuild.tools.build_log import EasyBuildError, print_msg
-from easybuild.tools.run import run_cmd
+from easybuild.tools.run import run_shell_cmd
 
 
 class EB_intel_minus_compilers(IntelBase):
@@ -174,12 +174,12 @@ def make_module_extra(self):
 
         # On Debian/Ubuntu, /usr/include/x86_64-linux-gnu, or whatever dir gcc uses, needs to be included
         # in $CPATH for Intel C compiler
-        multiarch_out, ec = run_cmd("gcc -print-multiarch", simple=False)
-        multiarch_out = multiarch_out.strip()
-        if ec == 0 and multiarch_out:
-            multiarch_inc_dir, ec = run_cmd("gcc -E -Wp,-v -xc /dev/null 2>&1 | grep %s$" % multiarch_out)
-            if ec == 0 and multiarch_inc_dir:
-                multiarch_inc_dir = multiarch_inc_dir.strip()
+        res = run_shell_cmd("gcc -print-multiarch")
+        multiarch_out = res.output.strip()
+        if res.exit_code == 0 and multiarch_out:
+            res = run_cmd("gcc -E -Wp,-v -xc /dev/null 2>&1 | grep %s$" % multiarch_out)
+            multiarch_inc_dir = res.output.strip()
+            if res.exit_code == 0 and multiarch_inc_dir:
                 self.log.info("Adding multiarch include path %s to $CPATH in generated module file", multiarch_inc_dir)
                 # system location must be appended at the end, so use append_paths
                 txt += self.module_generator.append_paths('CPATH', [multiarch_inc_dir], allow_abs=True)