> I suggest simply skipping the "offending" test on linuxthread
> platforms.

Good idea

> (perhaps as simple as checking for sys.platform == "linux2" 
> and signal.SIGRTMIN == 35)

I would prefer to rely on confstr():

import os
try:
    # 'linuxthreads-0.10' or 'NPTL 2.10.2'
    pthread = os.confstr("CS_GNU_LIBPTHREAD_VERSION")
    linuxthreads = pthread.startswith("linuxthreads")
except ValueError:
    linuxthreads = False

^^ this example requires attached patch for the two CS_GNU_* constants.

Which tests should be disabled?