diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index b1228fa3ff0..aeaf8442fd8 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@
                                             'yt/frontends/artio/artio_headers/'],
                      'STD_LIBS': std_libs,
                      'OMP_ARGS': omp_args,
-                     'FIXED_INTERP': 'yt/utilities/lib/fixed_interpolator.c',
+                     'FIXED_INTERP': 'yt/utilities/lib/fixed_interpolator.cpp',
                      'ARTIO_SOURCE': glob.glob("yt/frontends/artio/artio_headers/*.c"),
 }
 
diff --git a/yt/utilities/lib/cyoctree_raytracing.pxd b/yt/utilities/lib/cyoctree_raytracing.pxd
index 4bf2e41ff48..a863d9e2e41 100644
--- a/yt/utilities/lib/cyoctree_raytracing.pxd
+++ b/yt/utilities/lib/cyoctree_raytracing.pxd
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# distutils: language = c++
+# distutils: extra_compile_args=["-std=c++11"]
 """This is a wrapper around the C++ class to efficiently cast rays into an octree.
 It relies on the seminal paper by  J. Revelles,, C.Ureña and M.Lastra.
 """