diff --git a/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml b/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml
index d8b5adeb88..8ad5f4fb36 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml
+++ b/.github/workflows/tests_archdetect_nvidia_gpu.yml
@@ -52,14 +52,6 @@ jobs:
 
               echo "Test for '${{matrix.fake_nvidia_smi_script}}' PASSED: '$out'"
 
-              # by default the 'errexit' option is enabled (set -e),
-              # which causes trouble when 'eessi_archdetect.sh accelpath'
-              # fails to detect an accelerator and produces a non-zero exit code,
-              # so we have to unset it using 'set +e'
-              echo "set flags: $-"
-              set +e
-              echo "set flags after unsetting errexit option: $-"
-
               # run full EESSI init script, which pick up on the accelerator (if available)
               echo
               . init/bash 2>&1 | tee init.out
@@ -95,7 +87,7 @@ jobs:
               else
                   echo ">>> checking for 'accel/nvidia/cc80' in init output..."
                   grep "archdetect found supported accelerator for CPU target x86_64/amd/zen2: accel/nvidia/cc80" init.out || (echo "FAILED 2" && exit 1)
-                  grep "Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux x86_64/amd/zen2/accel/nvidia/cc80/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH" init.out || (echo "FAILED 3" && exit 1)
+                  grep "Prepending /cvmfs/software.eessi.io/versions/2023.06/software/linux/x86_64/amd/zen2/accel/nvidia/cc80/modules/all to \$MODULEPATH" init.out || (echo "FAILED 3" && exit 1)
               fi
 
               echo ">>> checking last line of init output..."
diff --git a/init/eessi_environment_variables b/init/eessi_environment_variables
index fb1b731ee1..ab4894fb16 100644
--- a/init/eessi_environment_variables
+++ b/init/eessi_environment_variables
@@ -38,12 +38,27 @@ if [ -d $EESSI_PREFIX ]; then
           break
         fi
       done
+
+      # we need to make sure that errexit shell option (set -e) is not enabled,
+      # since archdetect will produce non-zero exit code if no accelerator was found
+      if [[ "$-" =~ e ]]; then
+        errexit_shell_option_set='yes'
+        set +e
+      else
+        errexit_shell_option_set='no'
+      fi
+
       # to be able to grab exit code of archdetect trying to detect accelerators,
       # we can not run it via $(...), so we have to redirect the output to a temporary file
       tmpout=$(mktemp)
       ${EESSI_INIT_DIR_PATH}/eessi_archdetect.sh accelpath 2>&1 > $tmpout
-      ec=$?
-      if [[ $ec -eq 0 ]]; then
+      accelpath_exit_code=$?
+
+      if [[ "$errexit_shell_option_set" == "yes" ]]; then
+        set -e
+      fi
+
+      if [[ $accelpath_exit_code -eq 0 ]]; then
           export EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR=$(tail -1 $tmpout && rm -f $tmpout)
           if [ -z ${EESSI_ACCEL_SUBDIR} ]; then
               error "accelerator detection with archdetect worked, but no result was returned?!"