diff --git a/Modules/_bsddb.c b/Modules/_bsddb.c
index f3afdc9..5834d51 100644
--- a/Modules/_bsddb.c
+++ b/Modules/_bsddb.c
@@ -75,12 +75,12 @@
 /* --------------------------------------------------------------------- */
 /* Various macro definitions */
 
-#define PY_BSDDB_VERSION "3.4.0"
+#define PY_BSDDB_VERSION "3.4.2"
 
 /* 40 = 4.0, 33 = 3.3; this will break if the second number is > 9 */
 #define DBVER (DB_VERSION_MAJOR * 10 + DB_VERSION_MINOR)
 
-static char *orig_rcs_id = "/Id: _db.c,v 1.44 2002/06/07 18:24:00 greg Exp /";
+static char *orig_rcs_id = "/Id: _db.c,v 1.48 2002/11/21 19:11:19 greg Exp /";
 static char *rcs_id = "$Id$";
 
 
@@ -1012,7 +1012,17 @@
     secondaryDB->associateCallback = callback;
     secondaryDB->primaryDBType = _DB_get_type(self);
 
-
+    /* PyEval_InitThreads is called here due to a quirk in python 1.5
+     * - 2.2.1 (at least) according to Russell Williamson <merel@wt.net>:
+     * The global interepreter lock is not initialized until the first
+     * thread is created using thread.start_new_thread() or fork() is
+     * called.  that would cause the ALLOW_THREADS here to segfault due
+     * to a null pointer reference if no threads or child processes
+     * have been created.  This works around that and is a no-op if
+     * threads have already been initialized.
+     *  (see pybsddb-users mailing list post on 2002-08-07)
+     */
+    PyEval_InitThreads();
     MYDB_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS;
     err = self->db->associate(self->db,
                               secondaryDB->db,
@@ -2323,8 +2333,6 @@
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, ":close"))
         return NULL;
 
-    CHECK_CURSOR_NOT_CLOSED(self);
-
     if (self->dbc != NULL) {
         MYDB_BEGIN_ALLOW_THREADS;
         err = self->dbc->c_close(self->dbc);
@@ -2413,7 +2421,7 @@
 static PyObject*
 DBC_get(DBCursorObject* self, PyObject* args, PyObject *kwargs)
 {
-    int err, flags;
+    int err, flags=0;
     PyObject* keyobj = NULL;
     PyObject* dataobj = NULL;
     PyObject* retval = NULL;
@@ -3298,7 +3306,7 @@
     int err;
     DB_LOCK_STAT* sp;
     PyObject* d = NULL;
-    u_int32_t flags;
+    u_int32_t flags = 0;
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:lock_stat", &flags))
         return NULL;
@@ -3410,7 +3418,7 @@
     int err;
     DB_TXN_STAT* sp;
     PyObject* d = NULL;
-    u_int32_t flags;
+    u_int32_t flags=0;
 
     if (!PyArg_ParseTuple(args, "|i:txn_stat", &flags))
         return NULL;