10.3.5 client update breaks network login against 10.2.8 NetInfo server

Currently, I'm 1 for 6 for trouble-free 10.3.5 client installations. This is obviously NOT good. I have some iMacs/eMacs (including two eMacs which are identical clones) that all have network user logins authenticating over NetInfo against an OS X 10.2.8 server. This has worked very well under 10.3.4 for months now. After running the 10.3.5 combo update on one eMac and seeing no problems, I applied it to 2 other eMacs and 3 older iMacs (all running 10.3.4 and the latest of everthing else). All the other installations broke. What happens is that the network users show up in the login window fine after a reboot, but sometimes after a minute the login window goes away. It either stays at a blue screen or goes to the console login mode (white text on black, Terminal style). The machines aren't dead - I can ssh into them just fine using a local user account. Strange things are showing up in the system.log files on them such as: Aug 10 23:35:35 localhost loginwindow[261]: Login authorization failed (-60008)! Aug 10 23:35:35 localhost loginwindow[261]: AuthorizationRef doesn't have a username (<LoginAuthRefMgr: 0x443ed0>). I tried to research how to fix that but came up empty-handed. Also, if I do click on a user name in the login window, it will prompt me for a password, which shouldn't happen on the guest account (no password, plus it is a local (non-network) account). What's more is that if I click on the "Other..." icon instead of prompting me with user/pass fields, it simply prompts with the password field. I don't even get a chance to enter a user name. If I hit the escape key or back button on the login window, it returns to the user list but the list has become just one big white box. At this point, rebooting the machine is all I can do (through ssh). This is happening on 5 different machines that range from a 3 week-old eMac to a 5 year-old iMac. The only machine the update didn't ruin was another 3 week-old eMac. I've tried disabling/enabling NetInfo binding in DirectoryAccess.app, zapping PRAM, trashing loginwindow.plist files... everything. I'm stuck (aside from cloning the one working eMac and hoping for the best). Any ideas on things to try? This is the first time a point-point release has caused such a headache for me. :-( -Matt