diff --git a/deploy/install.sh b/deploy/install.sh
index 3d9c0b7..98e6ca5 100755
--- a/deploy/install.sh
+++ b/deploy/install.sh
@@ -185,6 +185,9 @@
 [Service]
 Type=simple
 User=${RUN_USER}
+# Old distros run units without a UTF-8 locale (stdout ends up latin-1/ascii);
+# any non-ASCII log line would crash the logger at startup otherwise.
+Environment=PYTHONIOENCODING=utf-8
 WorkingDirectory=${REPO_DIR}
 ExecStart=${REPO_DIR}/.venv/bin/navi-server
 Restart=always
diff --git a/navi/main.py b/navi/main.py
index 7a1d55d..bfd909d 100644
--- a/navi/main.py
+++ b/navi/main.py
@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@
     # the web UI is off (deployed terminal-only mode).
     ui_mcp_active = settings.navi_ui_mcp_enabled and settings.navi_webclient_enabled
     if not settings.navi_webclient_enabled:
-        log.info("startup.webclient_disabled", message="Web UI is off — pure API/WS server (terminal clients only).")
+        log.info("startup.webclient_disabled", message="Web UI is off - pure API/WS server (terminal clients only).")
 
     ui_server_task: asyncio.Task | None = None
     if ui_mcp_active:
@@ -106,7 +106,7 @@
     if not settings.navi_auth_enabled:
         log.warning(
             "startup.auth_disabled",
-            message="Authorization is disabled — the server is open to anyone with network access. "
+            message="Authorization is disabled - the server is open to anyone with network access. "
                     "Use NAVI_AUTH_ENABLED=false only for trusted single-user/local deployments.",
         )