Alex, If you think these patches are ready, I'll certain be happy to see them applied. However, I suspect you (and/or others) will have comments on how they're implemented, particularly 2-4. If so, I hope to get those as soon as convenient so I can revise as necessary well before the next release window.
Other than 1/4, these are mostly small cleanups I came up with while working towards migration support for pseries.
