I do not really like to revive old/aging posts, but I stumbled across this issue in EE v3.7.4
So, it was either start a new thread, or revive this one. I flipped a coin 
The error I'm getting reads:
'ascii' codec can't decode byte 0xe2 in position 0: ordinal not in range(128)
... and it occurs when i run the:
ee stack status
...command. It is displayed right after:
HHVM is not installed
...but never displays anything more than those two lines.
Obviously, I reviewed the details of this thread, though the solution did not work; nor did the solutions offered at the links suggested by @siprof
There was also details of a similar issue in EE 3.0.3 (see: http://community.rtcamp.com/t/ascii-codec-cant-decode-issue/4053), but again, the suggested fix didn't work.
I only use Debian for my VPS.
I have a specific process I follow for every EE instance I deploy (I/we call it GLEEMPLE - Think ISO-like process for deployment).
I use Google Cloud Platform for every VPS I manage, except this one. This specific VPS is hosted in AZURE (Hey, don't judge! 
)
Yes, I did find a solution before posting this post. I am posting it anyway in hopes it will help someone else solve this problem.
env | grep LANG...returned nothing, and:
localereturned this:
...where I was able to identify that LANG was blank.
Finally, I was able to fix this issue by issuing the following command:
export LANG=en_US.UTF-8