Backing out 86dc014cdd74. Not ready yet
diff --git a/Lib/_pyio.py b/Lib/_pyio.py
index 41402b1..f66290f 100644
--- a/Lib/_pyio.py
+++ b/Lib/_pyio.py
@@ -306,7 +306,6 @@
         * 0 -- start of stream (the default); offset should be zero or positive
         * 1 -- current stream position; offset may be negative
         * 2 -- end of stream; offset is usually negative
-        Some operating systems / file systems could provide additional values.
 
         Return an int indicating the new absolute position.
         """
@@ -867,7 +866,7 @@
         elif whence == 2:
             self._pos = max(0, len(self._buffer) + pos)
         else:
-            raise ValueError("unsupported whence value")
+            raise ValueError("invalid whence value")
         return self._pos
 
     def tell(self):
@@ -1042,6 +1041,8 @@
         return _BufferedIOMixin.tell(self) - len(self._read_buf) + self._read_pos
 
     def seek(self, pos, whence=0):
+        if not (0 <= whence <= 2):
+            raise ValueError("invalid whence value")
         with self._read_lock:
             if whence == 1:
                 pos -= len(self._read_buf) - self._read_pos
@@ -1137,6 +1138,8 @@
         return _BufferedIOMixin.tell(self) + len(self._write_buf)
 
     def seek(self, pos, whence=0):
+        if not (0 <= whence <= 2):
+            raise ValueError("invalid whence")
         with self._write_lock:
             self._flush_unlocked()
             return _BufferedIOMixin.seek(self, pos, whence)
@@ -1232,6 +1235,8 @@
         BufferedWriter.__init__(self, raw, buffer_size, max_buffer_size)
 
     def seek(self, pos, whence=0):
+        if not (0 <= whence <= 2):
+            raise ValueError("invalid whence")
         self.flush()
         if self._read_buf:
             # Undo read ahead.
@@ -1847,7 +1852,8 @@
                 self._decoder.reset()
             return position
         if whence != 0:
-            raise ValueError("unsupported whence (%r)" % (whence,))
+            raise ValueError("invalid whence (%r, should be 0, 1 or 2)" %
+                             (whence,))
         if cookie < 0:
             raise ValueError("negative seek position %r" % (cookie,))
         self.flush()
diff --git a/Lib/os.py b/Lib/os.py
index 2403f30..2c7d954 100644
--- a/Lib/os.py
+++ b/Lib/os.py
@@ -116,7 +116,6 @@
 
 # Python uses fixed values for the SEEK_ constants; they are mapped
 # to native constants if necessary in posixmodule.c
-# Other possible SEEK values are directly imported from posixmodule.c
 SEEK_SET = 0
 SEEK_CUR = 1
 SEEK_END = 2
diff --git a/Lib/test/test_posix.py b/Lib/test/test_posix.py
index c8798a9..142dddd 100644
--- a/Lib/test/test_posix.py
+++ b/Lib/test/test_posix.py
@@ -1009,26 +1009,6 @@
         posix.RTLD_GLOBAL
         posix.RTLD_LOCAL
 
-    @unittest.skipUnless('PC_MIN_HOLE_SIZE' in os.pathconf_names,
-                         "test needs an OS that reports file holes")
-    def test_fs_holes(self) :
-        # Even if the filesystem doesn't report holes,
-        # if the OS supports it the SEEK_* constants
-        # will be defined and will have a consistent
-        # behaviour:
-        # os.SEEK_DATA = current position
-        # os.SEEK_HOLE = end of file position
-        with open(support.TESTFN, 'r+b') as fp :
-            fp.write(b"hello")
-            fp.flush()
-            size = fp.tell()
-            fno = fp.fileno()
-            for i in range(size) :
-                self.assertEqual(i, os.lseek(fno, i, os.SEEK_DATA))
-                self.assertLessEqual(size, os.lseek(fno, i, os.SEEK_HOLE))
-            self.assertRaises(OSError, os.lseek, fno, size, os.SEEK_DATA)
-            self.assertRaises(OSError, os.lseek, fno, size, os.SEEK_HOLE)
-
 class PosixGroupsTester(unittest.TestCase):
 
     def setUp(self):