diff --git a/gns3server/main.py b/gns3server/main.py
index 9a11139b..edd927ae 100644
--- a/gns3server/main.py
+++ b/gns3server/main.py
@@ -20,10 +20,14 @@ import os
 import datetime
 import sys
 import multiprocessing
+import locale
 import tornado.options
 from gns3server.server import Server
 from gns3server.version import __version__
 
+import logging
+log = logging.getLogger(__name__)
+
 # command line options
 from tornado.options import define
 define("host", default="0.0.0.0", help="run on the given host/IP address", type=str)
@@ -31,13 +35,48 @@ define("port", default=8000, help="run on the given port", type=int)
 define("ipc", default=False, help="use IPC for module communication", type=bool)
 
 
+def locale_check():
+    """
+    Checks if this application runs with a correct locale (i.e. supports UTF-8 encoding) and attempt to fix
+    if this is not the case.
+
+    This is to prevent UnicodeEncodeError with unicode paths when using standard library I/O operation
+    methods (e.g. os.stat() or os.path.*) which rely on the system or user locale.
+    """
+
+    # no need to check on Windows
+    if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
+        return
+
+    language = encoding = None
+    try:
+        language, encoding = locale.getlocale()
+    except ValueError as e:
+        log.error("could not determine the current locale: {}".format(e))
+    if not language and not encoding:
+        try:
+            log.warn("could not find a default locale, switching to C.UTF-8...")
+            locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, ("C", "UTF-8"))
+        except locale.Error as e:
+            log.error("could not switch to the C.UTF-8 locale: {}".format(e))
+            raise SystemExit
+    elif encoding != "UTF-8":
+        log.warn("your locale {}.{} encoding is not UTF-8, switching to the UTF-8 version...".format(language, encoding))
+        try:
+            locale.setlocale(locale.LC_ALL, (language, "UTF-8"))
+        except locale.Error as e:
+            log.error("could not set an UTF-8 encoding for the {} locale: {}".format(language, e))
+    else:
+        log.info("current locale is {}.{}".format(language, encoding))
+
+
 def main():
     """
     Entry point for GNS3 server
     """
 
     if sys.platform.startswith("win"):
-        # necessary on Windows to use freezing software
+        # necessary on Windows to freeze the application
         multiprocessing.freeze_support()
 
     current_year = datetime.date.today().year
@@ -59,6 +98,8 @@ def main():
         tornado.options.print_help()
         raise SystemExit
 
+    locale_check()
+
     from tornado.options import options
     server = Server(options.host,
                     options.port,
diff --git a/gns3server/modules/base.py b/gns3server/modules/base.py
index 34164f2b..5e08c053 100644
--- a/gns3server/modules/base.py
+++ b/gns3server/modules/base.py
@@ -54,6 +54,7 @@ class IModule(multiprocessing.Process):
         self._current_session = None
         self._current_destination = None
         self._current_call_id = None
+        self._stopping = False
 
     def _setup(self):
         """
@@ -128,13 +129,16 @@ class IModule(multiprocessing.Process):
         except KeyboardInterrupt:
             return
 
+        log.info("{} module has stopped".format(self.name))
+
     def stop(self):
         """
         Stops the event loop.
         """
 
-        if self._ioloop:
-            self._ioloop.stop()
+        if not self._stopping:
+            self._stopping = True
+            self._ioloop.add_callback_from_signal(self._ioloop.stop)
 
     def send_response(self, results):
         """
diff --git a/gns3server/modules/iou/iou_device.py b/gns3server/modules/iou/iou_device.py
index c96953a7..f56d38b3 100644
--- a/gns3server/modules/iou/iou_device.py
+++ b/gns3server/modules/iou/iou_device.py
@@ -442,8 +442,8 @@ class IOUDevice(object):
                 self._started = True
             except OSError as e:
                 iou_stdout = self.read_iou_stdout()
-                log.error("could not start IOU: {}\n{}".format(e, iou_stdout))
-                raise IOUError("could not start IOU: {}\n{}".format(e, iou_stdout))
+                log.error("could not start IOU {}: {}\n{}".format(self._path, e, iou_stdout))
+                raise IOUError("could not start IOU {}: {}\n{}".format(self._path, e, iou_stdout))
 
             # start console support
             self._start_ioucon()
diff --git a/gns3server/server.py b/gns3server/server.py
index 0904f705..e74eb132 100644
--- a/gns3server/server.py
+++ b/gns3server/server.py
@@ -224,7 +224,8 @@ class Server(object):
 
         # terminate all modules
         for module in self._modules:
-            #module.join(timeout=1)
+#             if not sys.platform.startswith("win"):
+#                 module.join(timeout=0.5)
             if module.is_alive():
                 log.info("terminating {}".format(module.name))
                 module.terminate()