FYI, Figured out that running ./configure with --with-pydebug does NOT define Py_DEBUG in pyconfig.h.

Defining it in pyconfig.h got me past the "undefined reference to `_PyUnicode_CheckConsistency'" error, but i'm now getting this:

if test $? -ne 0 ; then \
        echo "generate-posix-vars failed" ; \
        rm -f ./pybuilddir.txt ; \
        exit 1 ; \
fi
Debug memory block at address p=0x90b7b0: API ''
    2416312320 bytes originally requested
    The 3 pad bytes at p-3 are not all FORBIDDENBYTE (0xfb):
        at p-3: 0x00 *** OUCH
        at p-2: 0x00 *** OUCH
        at p-1: 0x00 *** OUCH
    Because memory is corrupted at the start, the count of bytes requested
       may be bogus, and checking the trailing pad bytes may segfault.
    The 4 pad bytes at tail=0x9096b7b0 are Segmentation fault
generate-posix-vars failed
make: *** [pybuilddir.txt] Error 1

Will re-check patch application and try again