Could git version mismatches be responsible for the borked git clone experiences?

Guys, I did a fresh git clone http://scm.trinitydesktop.org/scm/git and the git clone resulted in the same empty 'admin' and 'cmake' files in the directories and in having and experimental/.git FILE instead of a DIR which hosed the shared object use to fill them. switch_all_submodules_to_head_and_clean crashed on experimental do I deleted and recloned experimental. Now I have a proper .git DIRECTORY in experimental and the expected objects are present. All other dependencies, applications, have .git FILES instead of .git DIRECTORIES causing switch_all_submodules_to_head_and_clean to fail. If I delete each submodule and then re-clone it again in the tree, the it will contain a proper .git dir and will accept 'admin' and 'cmake' shared objects allowing build. But, I shouldn't have to pick through every submodule in TDE, delete recursive the submodule and then re-clone just to get the tree straightened out -- this is git -- it should just work. Still any idea what the cause of these issues are?? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E.