diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/README.md b/projects/amdsmi/README.md
index 11579938bc..468c18c754 100755
--- a/projects/amdsmi/README.md
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/README.md
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@ In order to build the AMD SMI library, the following components are required. No
 
 In order to build the AMD SMI python package, the following components are required:
 * clang (14.0 or above)
-* python (3.7 or above)
+* python (3.6 or above)
 * virtualenv - `pip3 install virtualenv`
 
 In order to build the latest documentation, the following are required:
@@ -169,7 +169,7 @@ make python_wrapper # or simply 'make'
 
 After this command, the file in `py-interface/amdsmi_wrapper.py` will be automatically updated on each compile.
 
-Note: To be able to re-generate python wrapper you need several tools installed on your system: clang-14, clang-format, libclang-dev
+Note: To be able to re-generate python wrapper you need several tools installed on your system: clang-14, clang-format, libclang-dev, and ***python3.7 or newer***.
 
 Note: python_wrapper is NOT automatically re-generated. You must run `cmake` with `-DBUILD_WRAPPER=on` argument.
 
diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/CMakeLists.txt b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/CMakeLists.txt
index c1c2250214..62a5beaf2d 100644
--- a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -9,18 +9,7 @@ set(PY_CLI_INSTALL_DIR
     "${CMAKE_INSTALL_LIBEXECDIR}" CACHE STRING
     "CLI tool installation directory")
 
-# if Python3 is found but the version is below 3.7 - Python3_FOUND is set to FALSE
-find_package(Python3 3.7 COMPONENTS Interpreter Development)
-
-# WARN: This is a HACK to pass compile on AMD rhel8 and centos7 CI systems!
-#       Those still use python3.6 which is too old for this project!
-# TODO: Promote to an error when python3.7 or above is installed on CI
-if(NOT Python3_FOUND)
-    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "Python3 DOESN'T EXIST OR VERSION IS TOO OLD!: ${Python3_VERSION}")
-    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "The CLI tool will not be created and the project will not be packaged!")
-    # WARN: EXIT CURRENT CMAKE FILE
-    return()
-endif()
+find_package(Python3 3.6 COMPONENTS Interpreter Development REQUIRED)
 
 # hard-linking instead of copying avoids unnecessarry regeneration of packaged files
 add_custom_command(
diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_logger.py b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_logger.py
index e82e1e1481..11486fd361 100644
--- a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_logger.py
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_logger.py
@@ -372,9 +372,18 @@ class AMDSMILogger():
 
         if self.destination == 'stdout':
             if watch_output:
-                return
                 # print_output may need another value: flush_output vs watch_output
-            print(human_readable)
+                return
+            # printing as unicode may fail if locale is not set properly
+            # see: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/9942594/unicodeencodeerror-ascii-codec-cant-encode-character-u-xa0-in-position-20
+            # export PYTHONIOENCODING=utf8
+            try:
+                # print as unicode
+                print(human_readable)
+            except UnicodeEncodeError:
+                # print as ascii, ignore incompatible characters
+                print(human_readable.encode('ascii', 'ignore').decode('ascii'))
+
         else:
             if watch_output:
                 return
diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_parser.py b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_parser.py
index 400aef5e11..53a6724cf9 100644
--- a/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_parser.py
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/amdsmi_cli/amdsmi_parser.py
@@ -56,9 +56,7 @@ class AMDSMIParser(argparse.ArgumentParser):
         subparsers = self.add_subparsers(
             title="AMD-SMI Commands",
             parser_class=argparse.ArgumentParser,
-            required=True,
             help="Descriptions:",
-            # dest='cmd',
             metavar="")
 
         # Add all subparsers
diff --git a/projects/amdsmi/py-interface/CMakeLists.txt b/projects/amdsmi/py-interface/CMakeLists.txt
index ea02dc4d23..666293f39f 100644
--- a/projects/amdsmi/py-interface/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/projects/amdsmi/py-interface/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -11,19 +11,6 @@ set(PY_BUILD_DIR "python_package")
 set(PY_PACKAGE_DIR "${PY_BUILD_DIR}/amdsmi")
 set(PY_WRAPPER_INSTALL_DIR "${SHARE_INSTALL_PREFIX}" CACHE STRING "Wrapper installation directory")
 
-# if Python3 is found but the version is below 3.7 - Python3_FOUND is set to FALSE
-find_package(Python3 3.7 COMPONENTS Interpreter Development)
-
-# WARN: This is a HACK to pass compile on AMD rhel8 and centos7 CI systems!
-#       Those still use python3.6 which is too old for this project!
-# TODO: Promote to an error when python3.7 or above is installed on CI
-if(NOT Python3_FOUND)
-    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "Python3 DOESN'T EXIST OR VERSION IS TOO OLD!: ${Python3_VERSION}")
-    message(AUTHOR_WARNING "The wrapper will not be created and the project will not be packaged!")
-    # WARN: EXIT CURRENT CMAKE FILE
-    return()
-endif()
-
 # TODO: Figure out how python-clang and clang are related
 #       Currently only a very specific combination works
 
@@ -59,6 +46,7 @@ if(NOT GOOD_CLANG_FOUND)
         COMMAND mkdir -p ${PY_PACKAGE_DIR}
         COMMAND ln -Pf ${CMAKE_CURRENT_BINARY_DIR}/amdsmi_wrapper.py ${PY_PACKAGE_DIR}/)
 else()
+    find_package(Python3 3.7 COMPONENTS Interpreter Development REQUIRED)
     add_custom_target(
         python_pre_reqs
         COMMAND ${Python3_EXECUTABLE} -m pip install clang==${clang_ver} ctypeslib2==${ctypeslib_ver})