diff --git a/check-guile.in b/check-guile.in
index dde51b37d..fc670e120 100644
--- a/check-guile.in
+++ b/check-guile.in
@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ top_builddir=@top_builddir_absolute@
 top_srcdir=@top_srcdir_absolute@
 
 TEST_SUITE_DIR=${top_srcdir}/test-suite
+export TEST_SUITE_DIR
 
 if [ x"$1" = x-i ] ; then
     guile=$2
diff --git a/test-suite/tests/popen-child.scm b/test-suite/tests/popen-child.scm
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..423817b43
--- /dev/null
+++ b/test-suite/tests/popen-child.scm
@@ -0,0 +1,5 @@
+(close-port (current-input-port))
+(let loop ()
+  (display "closed\n" (current-error-port))
+  (force-output  (current-error-port))
+  (loop))
diff --git a/test-suite/tests/popen.test b/test-suite/tests/popen.test
index 0a20cff7a..a408c9e00 100644
--- a/test-suite/tests/popen.test
+++ b/test-suite/tests/popen.test
@@ -167,8 +167,9 @@
     (let* ((c2p (pipe))
 	   (port (with-error-to-port (cdr c2p)
 		   (lambda ()
-		     (open-output-pipe
-		      "exec 0</dev/null; while true; do echo closed 1>&2; done")))))
+		     (open-output-pipe (format #f
+                                               "guile -s ~a/tests/popen-child.scm"
+                                               (getenv "TEST_SUITE_DIR")))))))
       (close-port (cdr c2p))   ;; write side
       (with-epipe
        (lambda ()