diff --git a/SConstruct b/SConstruct
index 932eb819d3..b93a000266 100755
--- a/SConstruct
+++ b/SConstruct
@@ -1013,7 +1013,7 @@ export_vars += ['USE_FENV', 'TARGET_ISA', 'TARGET_GPU_ISA', 'CP_ANNOTATE',
 # operands are the name of the variable and a Value node containing the
 # value of the variable.
 def build_config_file(target, source, env):
-    (variable, value) = [s.get_contents() for s in source]
+    (variable, value) = [s.get_contents().decode('utf-8') for s in source]
     with open(str(target[0]), 'w') as f:
         print('#define', variable, value, file=f)
     return None
diff --git a/src/SConscript b/src/SConscript
index e8b90acf56..552235a66b 100644
--- a/src/SConscript
+++ b/src/SConscript
@@ -621,7 +621,7 @@ for opt in export_vars:
     env.ConfigFile(opt)
 
 def makeTheISA(source, target, env):
-    isas = [ src.get_contents() for src in source ]
+    isas = [ src.get_contents().decode('utf-8') for src in source ]
     target_isa = env['TARGET_ISA']
     def define(isa):
         return isa.upper() + '_ISA'
@@ -823,7 +823,7 @@ depends.sort(key = lambda x: x.name)
 # Generate Python file containing a dict specifying the current
 # buildEnv flags.
 def makeDefinesPyFile(target, source, env):
-    build_env = source[0].get_contents()
+    build_env = source[0].get_contents().decode('utf-8')
 
     code = code_formatter()
     code("""
@@ -882,7 +882,7 @@ def createSimObjectCxxConfig(is_header):
     def body(target, source, env):
         assert len(target) == 1 and len(source) == 1
 
-        name = str(source[0].get_contents())
+        name = source[0].get_contents().decode('utf-8')
         obj = sim_objects[name]
 
         code = code_formatter()
diff --git a/src/python/m5/util/__init__.py b/src/python/m5/util/__init__.py
index 2fdd5a19b3..fd1ea91258 100644
--- a/src/python/m5/util/__init__.py
+++ b/src/python/m5/util/__init__.py
@@ -43,6 +43,8 @@ import os
 import re
 import sys
 
+from six import string_types
+
 from . import convert
 from . import jobfile
 
@@ -122,7 +124,7 @@ def compareVersions(v1, v2):
     def make_version_list(v):
         if isinstance(v, (list,tuple)):
             return v
-        elif isinstance(v, str):
+        elif isinstance(v, string_types):
             return map(lambda x: int(re.match('\d+', x).group()), v.split('.'))
         else:
             raise TypeError()
@@ -196,7 +198,7 @@ def readCommand(cmd, **kwargs):
             return exception
         raise
 
-    return subp.communicate()[0]
+    return subp.communicate()[0].decode('utf-8')
 
 def makeDir(path):
     """Make a directory if it doesn't exist.  If the path does exist,