diff --git a/PRIVATE b/PRIVATE
index 3358be226..5d43a56aa 160000
--- a/PRIVATE
+++ b/PRIVATE
@@ -1 +1 @@
-Subproject commit 3358be226989780b4969554e688a1bdff3d02c70
+Subproject commit 5d43a56aa25e90462660056a45648caedd99dac6
diff --git a/python/damask/solver/abaqus.py b/python/damask/solver/abaqus.py
index 305e5cbe1..22dbab045 100644
--- a/python/damask/solver/abaqus.py
+++ b/python/damask/solver/abaqus.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ class Abaqus(Solver):
     except OSError:                                                                                 # link to abqXXX not existing
       cmd='abaqus'
       process = subprocess.Popen(['abaqus','information=release'],stdout = subprocess.PIPE,stderr = subprocess.PIPE)
-      detectedVersion = process.stdout.readlines()[1].split()[1]
+      detectedVersion = process.stdout.readlines()[1].split()[1].decode('utf-8')
       if self.version != detectedVersion:
         raise Exception('found Abaqus version {}, but requested {}'.format(detectedVersion,self.version))
     return '{} -job {} -user {}/src/DAMASK_abaqus interactive'.format(cmd,model,env.rootDir())