diff --git a/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/lib/backends/svn.py b/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/lib/backends/svn.py
--- a/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/lib/backends/svn.py
+++ b/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/lib/backends/svn.py
@@ -212,7 +212,7 @@ class SubversionTunnelWrapper(object):
 
         first_response = self.get_first_client_response()
         if not first_response:
-            return self.fail("Repository name cannot be extracted")
+            return self.fail(b"Repository name cannot be extracted")
 
         url_parts = urllib.parse.urlparse(first_response['url'])
 
diff --git a/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/tests/test_server_svn.py b/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/tests/test_server_svn.py
--- a/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/tests/test_server_svn.py
+++ b/rhodecode/apps/ssh_support/tests/test_server_svn.py
@@ -62,6 +62,7 @@ def svn_server(app):
 
 
 class TestSubversionServer(object):
+
     def test_command(self, svn_server):
         server = svn_server.create()
         expected_command = [