diff --git a/applications/admin/controllers/debug.py b/applications/admin/controllers/debug.py
index 06ba3b83..8a08dc83 100644
--- a/applications/admin/controllers/debug.py
+++ b/applications/admin/controllers/debug.py
@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@
 import os
 import sys
-import gluon.contrib.shell
+#import gluon.contrib.shell
 import gluon.dal
 import gluon.html
 import gluon.validators
 import code
-import thread
 from gluon.debug import communicate, web_debugger, qdb_debugger
+from gluon._compat import thread
 import pydoc
 
 
diff --git a/applications/admin/views/default/edit_js.html b/applications/admin/views/default/edit_js.html
index a10f39d4..75aa74a5 100644
--- a/applications/admin/views/default/edit_js.html
+++ b/applications/admin/views/default/edit_js.html
@@ -25,11 +25,11 @@
     <p class="formfield">
     {{if functions:}}
         <span style="text-align:left;" class="exposed">
-        {{=B(T('exposes:'))}} {{=XML(', '.join([A(f,_target="_blank", _href=URL(a=app,c=controller,f=f)).xml() for f in functions]))}}
+        {{=B(T('exposes:'))}} {{=XML(b', '.join([A(f,_target="_blank", _href=URL(a=app,c=controller,f=f)).xml() for f in functions]))}}
         </span>
         {{if editviewlinks:}}<br/>
             {{=B(T('edit views:'))}}
-            {{=XML(', '.join([v.xml() for v in editviewlinks]))}}
+            {{=XML(b', '.join([v.xml() for v in editviewlinks]))}}
         {{pass}}
     {{pass}}
     {{if edit_controller:}}
diff --git a/gluon/debug.py b/gluon/debug.py
index 12db5a93..a4432590 100644
--- a/gluon/debug.py
+++ b/gluon/debug.py
@@ -13,8 +13,8 @@ Debugger support classes
 
 import logging
 import pdb
-import Queue
 import sys
+from gluon._compat import Queue
 
 logger = logging.getLogger("web2py")
 
diff --git a/gluon/html.py b/gluon/html.py
index 5ddf5dd4..183bb4e0 100644
--- a/gluon/html.py
+++ b/gluon/html.py
@@ -596,17 +596,18 @@ class XML(XmlComponent):
                 for A, IMG and BlockQuote).
                 The key is the tag; the value is a list of allowed attributes.
         """
-
         if sanitize:
             text = sanitizer.sanitize(text, permitted_tags, allowed_attributes)
         if isinstance(text, unicodeT):
             text = to_native(text.encode('utf8', 'xmlcharrefreplace'))
+        elif isinstance(text, bytes):
+            text = to_native(text)
         elif not isinstance(text, str):
             text = str(text)
-        self.text = to_bytes(text)
+        self.text = text
 
     def xml(self):
-        return self.text
+        return to_bytes(self.text)
 
     def __str__(self):
         return self.text
diff --git a/gluon/main.py b/gluon/main.py
index e438f4ba..81f04b90 100644
--- a/gluon/main.py
+++ b/gluon/main.py
@@ -482,7 +482,7 @@ def wsgibase(environ, responder):
                     if request.ajax:
                         if response.flash:
                             http_response.headers['web2py-component-flash'] = \
-                                urllib2.quote(xmlescape(response.flash).replace('\n', ''))
+                                urllib2.quote(xmlescape(response.flash).replace(b'\n', b''))
                         if response.js:
                             http_response.headers['web2py-component-command'] = \
                                 urllib2.quote(response.js.replace('\n', ''))