diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index 4d97cea7a4..d0c8d74dfc 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -4,7 +4,7 @@ Full documentation for rocm_smi_lib is available at [https://rocm.docs.amd.com/]
 
 ***All information listed below is for reference and subject to change.***
 
-## rocm_smi_lib for ROCm 6.3
+## rocm_smi_lib for ROCm 6.2.1
 
 ### Added
 
@@ -16,7 +16,8 @@ Full documentation for rocm_smi_lib is available at [https://rocm.docs.amd.com/]
 
 ### Optimized
 
-- N/A
+- **Improved handling of UnicodeEncodeErrors with non UTF-8 locales**  
+Non UTF-8 locales were causing crashing on UTF-8 special characters
 
 ### Fixed
 
diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 5b6b7c48d2..3ad742534e 100755
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -343,6 +343,9 @@ if(CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_RELEASE)
   set(CPACK_RPM_PACKAGE_RELEASE_DIST ON)
 endif()
 
+# Cpack converts !/usr/bin/env python3 to /usr/libexec/platform-python in RHEL8.
+# prevent the BRP(buildroot policy) script from checking and modifying interpreter directives
+set(CPACK_RPM_SPEC_MORE_DEFINE "%undefine __brp_mangle_shebangs")
 
 # The line below doesn't currently work; it may be this issue:
 # https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1811358
diff --git a/python_smi_tools/rocm_smi.py b/python_smi_tools/rocm_smi.py
index 1214c5b9ef..dd3a64cc5a 100755
--- a/python_smi_tools/rocm_smi.py
+++ b/python_smi_tools/rocm_smi.py
@@ -24,7 +24,24 @@ import trace
 from io import StringIO
 from time import ctime
 from subprocess import check_output
-from rsmiBindings import *
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
+# only used for type checking
+# pyright trips up and cannot find rsmiBindings without it
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from rsmiBindings import *
+
+try:
+    from rsmiBindings import *
+except ImportError:
+    current_path = os.path.dirname(os.path.abspath(__file__))
+    additional_path = f"{current_path}/../libexec/rocm_smi"
+    sys.path.append(additional_path)
+    try:
+        from rsmiBindings import *
+    except ImportError:
+        print(f"Still couldn't import 'rsmiBindings'. Make sure it's installed in {additional_path}")
+        sys.exit(1)
 
 # rocmSmiLib_cli version. Increment this as needed.
 # Major version - Increment when backwards-compatibility breaks
@@ -33,7 +50,7 @@ from rsmiBindings import *
 # Hash  version - Shortened commit hash. Print here and not with lib for consistency with amd-smi
 SMI_MAJ = 2
 SMI_MIN = 3
-SMI_PAT = 0
+SMI_PAT = 1
 # SMI_HASH is provided by rsmiBindings
 __version__ = '%s.%s.%s+%s' % (SMI_MAJ, SMI_MIN, SMI_PAT, SMI_HASH)
 
@@ -196,7 +213,7 @@ def getBus(device, silent=False):
     # BDFID = ((DOMAIN & 0xFFFFFFFF) << 32) | ((PARTITION_ID & 0xF) << 28) | ((BUS & 0xFF) << 8) |
     # ((DEVICE & 0x1F) <<3 ) | (FUNCTION & 0x7)
     # bits [63:32] = domain
-    # bits [31:28] or bits [2:0] = partition id 
+    # bits [31:28] or bits [2:0] = partition id
     # bits [27:16] = reserved
     # bits [15:8]  = Bus
     # bits [7:3] = Device
@@ -223,7 +240,7 @@ def getPartitionId(device, silent=False):
     # BDFID = ((DOMAIN & 0xFFFFFFFF) << 32) | ((PARTITION_ID & 0xF) << 28) | ((BUS & 0xFF) << 8) |
     # ((DEVICE & 0x1F) <<3 ) | (FUNCTION & 0x7)
     # bits [63:32] = domain
-    # bits [31:28] or bits [2:0] = partition id 
+    # bits [31:28] or bits [2:0] = partition id
     # bits [27:16] = reserved
     # bits [15:8]  = Bus
     # bits [7:3] = Device