diff --git a/share/templates.d/99-generic/appliance/libvirt.tmpl b/share/templates.d/99-generic/appliance/libvirt.tmpl
index a739e635..b6ffc613 100644
--- a/share/templates.d/99-generic/appliance/libvirt.tmpl
+++ b/share/templates.d/99-generic/appliance/libvirt.tmpl
@@ -9,7 +9,7 @@
       <os>
         <loader dev='hd'/>
       </os>
-%for disk, letter in zip(disks, xrange(97, 123)):
+%for disk, letter in zip(disks, range(97, 123)):
       <drive disk='${disk.name}' target='hd${chr(letter)}'/>
 %endfor
     </boot>
diff --git a/src/pylorax/creator.py b/src/pylorax/creator.py
index 0ae6fc8e..10972ff5 100644
--- a/src/pylorax/creator.py
+++ b/src/pylorax/creator.py
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ def make_appliance(disk_img, name, template, outfile, networks=None, ram=1024,
 
     log.info("Calculating SHA256 checksum of %s", disk_img)
     sha256 = hashlib.sha256()
-    with open(disk_img) as f:
+    with open(disk_img, "rb") as f:
         while True:
             data = f.read(1024**2)
             if not data: