Index: /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/reporter.py
===================================================================
--- /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/reporter.py	(revision 70572)
+++ /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/reporter.py	(revision 70573)
@@ -746,5 +746,5 @@
 
         # Make sure it's a string which encoding we grok.
-        if sys.version_info[0] >= 3 and hasattr(sRspBody, 'decode'):
+        if hasattr(sRspBody, 'decode'):
             sRspBody = sRspBody.decode('utf-8', 'ignore');
 
Index: /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/vbox.py
===================================================================
--- /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/vbox.py	(revision 70572)
+++ /trunk/src/VBox/ValidationKit/testdriver/vbox.py	(revision 70573)
@@ -1087,4 +1087,7 @@
                     sResponse = None;
                 os.close(iPipeR);
+
+                if hasattr(sResponse, 'decode'):
+                    sResponse = sResponse.decode('utf-8', 'ignore');
 
                 if sResponse is None  or  sResponse.strip() != 'READY':