>Additionally,
>
>  I have hit numerous fatal errors running the
>switch_all_submodules_to_head_and_clean script. Examples:

>I have had similar failures with:
>
>kdmtheme
>kio-apt
>kio-locate
>kio-umountwrapper
>networkmanager9

All of those modules have been renamed.

>I guess these have all been removed from the tree, but is there a 
>way to tell git to just erase them and keep going instead of 
failing?

After you manually update the 
switch_all_submodules_to_head_and_clean script all modules should 
update correctly, which will include removing the old modules and 
pulling the renamed modules.

Darrell