--- /usr/lib/portage/pym/portage/getbinpkg.py.orig	2011-09-03 04:21:14.746443972 -0400
+++ /usr/lib/portage/pym/portage/getbinpkg.py.orig	2011-09-08 03:01:57.287674953 -0400
@@ -292,8 +292,13 @@ 
 	if dest:
 		dest.write(response.read())
 		return "",0,""
+	
+	# portage likes strings
+	resp = response.read()
+	if isinstance(resp, bytes):
+		resp=str(resp, encoding='latin-1')
 
-	return response.read(),0,""
+	return resp,0,""
 
 
 def match_in_array(array, prefix="", suffix="", match_both=1, allow_overlap=0):