diff --git a/waflib/Logs.py b/waflib/Logs.py
index 11dc34f3..298411db 100644
--- a/waflib/Logs.py
+++ b/waflib/Logs.py
@@ -237,7 +237,10 @@ class formatter(logging.Formatter):
 		if rec.levelno >= logging.INFO:
 			# the goal of this is to format without the leading "Logs, hour" prefix
 			if rec.args:
-				return msg % rec.args
+				try:
+					return msg % rec.args
+				except UnicodeDecodeError:
+					return msg.encode('utf-8') % rec.args
 			return msg
 
 		rec.msg = msg
diff --git a/waflib/Utils.py b/waflib/Utils.py
index 4b808a85..0a069b12 100644
--- a/waflib/Utils.py
+++ b/waflib/Utils.py
@@ -604,6 +604,12 @@ def h_list(lst):
 	"""
 	return md5(repr(lst).encode()).digest()
 
+if sys.hexversion < 0x3000000:
+	def h_list_python2(lst):
+		return md5(repr(lst)).digest()
+	h_list_python2.__doc__ = h_list.__doc__
+	h_list = h_list_python2
+
 def h_fun(fun):
 	"""
 	Hash functions