diff --git a/Modules/_sre.c b/Modules/_sre.c
index 1868657..f4cd1fe 100644
--- a/Modules/_sre.c
+++ b/Modules/_sre.c
@@ -1674,6 +1674,15 @@
     void* ptr;
     Py_buffer view;
 
+    /* Unicode objects do not support the buffer API. So, get the data
+       directly instead. */
+    if (PyUnicode_Check(string)) {
+        ptr = (void *)PyUnicode_AS_DATA(string);
+        *p_length = PyUnicode_GET_SIZE(string);
+        *p_charsize = sizeof(Py_UNICODE);
+        return ptr;
+    }
+
     /* get pointer to string buffer */
     view.len = -1;
     buffer = Py_Type(string)->tp_as_buffer;
diff --git a/Modules/posixmodule.c b/Modules/posixmodule.c
index 75ce991..2fe2b63 100644
--- a/Modules/posixmodule.c
+++ b/Modules/posixmodule.c
@@ -2135,7 +2135,8 @@
     FILEFINDBUF3   ep;
     APIRET rc;
 
-    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "t#:listdir", &name, &len))
+    if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "et#:listdir", 
+                          Py_FileSystemDefaultEncoding, &name, &len))
         return NULL;
     if (len >= MAX_PATH) {
 		PyErr_SetString(PyExc_ValueError, "path too long");
diff --git a/Objects/unicodeobject.c b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
index 73aeec4..def9011 100644
--- a/Objects/unicodeobject.c
+++ b/Objects/unicodeobject.c
@@ -8113,15 +8113,6 @@
 };
 
 
-static int
-unicode_buffer_getbuffer(PyUnicodeObject *self, Py_buffer *view, int flags)
-{
-
-    return PyBuffer_FillInfo(view, (void *)self->str,
-                             PyUnicode_GET_DATA_SIZE(self), 1, flags);
-}
-
-
 /* Helpers for PyUnicode_Format() */
 
 static PyObject *
@@ -8815,11 +8806,6 @@
     return NULL;
 }
 
-static PyBufferProcs unicode_as_buffer = {
-    (getbufferproc) unicode_buffer_getbuffer,
-    NULL,
-};
-
 static PyObject *
 unicode_subtype_new(PyTypeObject *type, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwds);
 
@@ -8903,7 +8889,7 @@
     (reprfunc) unicode_str,	 	/* tp_str */
     PyObject_GenericGetAttr, 		/* tp_getattro */
     0,			 		/* tp_setattro */
-    &unicode_as_buffer,			/* tp_as_buffer */
+    0, 					/* tp_as_buffer */
     Py_TPFLAGS_DEFAULT | Py_TPFLAGS_BASETYPE | 
         Py_TPFLAGS_UNICODE_SUBCLASS,	/* tp_flags */
     unicode_doc,			/* tp_doc */
diff --git a/Python/getargs.c b/Python/getargs.c
index de9cc93..4bcc175 100644
--- a/Python/getargs.c
+++ b/Python/getargs.c
@@ -1252,7 +1252,7 @@
 				arg, msgbuf, bufsize);
 		if (pb == NULL || pb->bf_getbuffer == NULL)
 			return converterr(
-				"string or read-only character buffer",
+				"bytes or read-only character buffer",
 				arg, msgbuf, bufsize);
 
 		if ((*pb->bf_getbuffer)(arg, &view, PyBUF_SIMPLE) != 0)