--- a/abxmktest/maketestutil.py
+++ b/abxmktest/maketestutil.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 _superverbose = False
 def debug(x):
     if _verbose:
-        print("%s" % x, file = sys.stderr)
+        print("%s" % makebytes(x), file = sys.stderr)
 
 def beginsWith(s, beg):
    if s[0:len(beg)] == beg: