UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xb5 in position 2: invalid start byte

Question

hello i'm trying a "python manage.py runserver" command in the cmd
but it returned me this eroor:

UnicodeDecodeError: 'utf-8' codec can't decode byte 0xb5 in position 2: invalid start byte"

on the position

"socket.py", line 791, in getfqdn
hostname, aliases, ipaddrs = gethostbyaddr(name)

Here ist the original code in the editor:

def getfqdn(name=''):
     name = name.strip()
    if not name or name == '0.0.0.0':
        name = gethostname()
    try:
        hostname, aliases, ipaddrs = gethostbyaddr(name)
    except error:
        pass
    else:
        aliases.insert(0, hostname)
        for name in aliases:
            if '.' in name:
                break
        else:
            name = hostname
    return name

I have no idea how i can bypass this error since i am not sure if i understand the code.
(first time asking question, thanks for your help!)

thanks @BiOS! that was really just a username problem, now the program works! — Codax
– Codax, Commented Mar 19, 2021 at 1:24

BiOS · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-18 10:43:15Z

1

It looks like name contains invalid characters the time it is given as argument to gethostbyaddr() in the socket module.

This is likely because your hostname actually does contains special characers. You may check for this by opening the Terminal or the Command Prompt and type in hostname

If you get something like this as a result:

računalo-codax

(The above is Croatian for "Codax-computer")

Then you need to change your computer name to make sure it does not contain any special characters like that č. Only plain letters a-zA-Z and numbers 0-9, or a dash -.

answered Mar 18, 2021 at 10:43

BiOS

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4 Comments

tripleee Over a year ago

That's dubious advice. Perhaps a better solution is to make sure you only use UTF-8 in your computer names because it's portable between platforms and increasingly becoming the de facto standard for Unicode on the Internet. In the meantime, if you know the encoding that your network administrator used when they named the computer, tell your library to decode('windows-1250') instead (assuming that's the actual encoding you want to decode).

BiOS Over a year ago

You might call it dubious advice but it was litterally how I had solved it myself.

tripleee Over a year ago

Oh I'm sure it works but yielding to the imperialist pressure is an unattractive workaround. We should be able to use any characters we choose in our private computer names.

Codax Over a year ago

thanks for your help, i have solved the problem! It was just because of the username...

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