diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/3.5.0.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/3.5.0.nix
index 1d05e6bb2a36..3c91bf373293 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/3.5.0.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/3.5.0.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   fetchurl,
   gfortran,
   cmake,
-  python,
+  python2,
   atlas ? null,
   shared ? false
 }:
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ atlasMaybeShared ];
   buildInputs = [ gfortran cmake ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ python ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ python2 ];
 
   cmakeFlags = [
     "-DUSE_OPTIMIZED_BLAS=ON"
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   doCheck = ! shared;
 
   checkPhase = "
-    sed -i 's,^#!.*,#!${python}/bin/python,' lapack_testing.py
+    sed -i 's,^#!.*,#!${python2.interpreter},' lapack_testing.py
     ctest
   ";
 
diff --git a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/default.nix b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/default.nix
index 80b66c5ab167..eea59164ffba 100644
--- a/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/default.nix
+++ b/pkgs/development/libraries/science/math/liblapack/default.nix
@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
   fetchurl,
   gfortran,
   cmake,
-  python,
+  python2,
   atlas ? null,
   shared ? false
 }:
@@ -25,7 +25,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
 
   propagatedBuildInputs = [ atlasMaybeShared ];
   buildInputs = [ gfortran cmake ];
-  nativeBuildInputs = [ python ];
+  nativeBuildInputs = [ python2 ];
 
   cmakeFlags = [
     "-DUSE_OPTIMIZED_BLAS=ON"
@@ -44,7 +44,7 @@ stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
   doCheck = ! shared;
 
   checkPhase = "
-    sed -i 's,^#!.*,#!${python}/bin/python,' lapack_testing.py
+    sed -i 's,^#!.*,#!${python2.interpreter},' lapack_testing.py
     ctest
   ";