diff --git a/scripts/bitbake b/scripts/bitbake
index 3923421cec..587428c589 100755
--- a/scripts/bitbake
+++ b/scripts/bitbake
@@ -16,6 +16,17 @@ done
 [ $needpseudo = "0" ] && break
 done
 
+# Make sure we're not using python v3.x. This check can't go into
+# sanity.bbclass because bitbake's source code doesn't even pass
+# parsing stage when used with python v3, so we catch it here so we
+# can offer a meaningful error message.
+py_v3_check=`/usr/bin/env python --version 2>&1 | grep "Python 3"`
+if [ "$py_v3_check" != "" ]; then
+	echo "Bitbake is not compatible with python v3"
+	echo "Please set up python v2 as your default python interpreter"
+	exit 1
+fi
+
 needtar="1"
 TARVERSION=`tar --version | head -n 1 | cut -d ' ' -f 4`
 float_test() {