diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index dca07ecf7..35604d731 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -228,5 +228,11 @@ setup(
 
     )
 
+if sys.version_info < (2, 7, 0):
+    sys.stderr.write('+-----------------------------------------------+\n')
+    sys.stderr.write('| Running Limnoria on Python 2.6 is deprecated. |\n')
+    sys.stderr.write('| Please consider upgrading to Python 3.x (or   |\n')
+    sys.stderr.write('| at least 2.7)                                 |\n')
+    sys.stderr.write('+-----------------------------------------------+\n')
 
 # vim:set shiftwidth=4 softtabstop=4 expandtab textwidth=79:
diff --git a/src/utils/str.py b/src/utils/str.py
index dbfd83824..8a73d4d57 100644
--- a/src/utils/str.py
+++ b/src/utils/str.py
@@ -294,7 +294,10 @@ def perlVariableSubstitute(vars, text):
             if callable(x):
                 return x()
             else:
-                return str(x)
+                try:
+                    return str(x)
+                except UnicodeEncodeError: # Python 2
+                    return str(x).encode('utf8')
         except KeyError:
             if braced:
                 return '${%s}' % braced