Resolved the 'inconsistent newlines' merge error by updating my svn client.
The error was caused by a bug in svn client (http://subversion.tigris.org/issues/show_bug.cgi?id=3262) that was
fixed in 1.5.5.
Fixed conflicts in image.c, object_edit.c, wm_operators.c, source/creator/CMakeLists.txt and CMakeLists.txt.
Merge didn't remove some files that were moved/renamed in trunk, svn reported 'Skipped [filename]' on these files.
I removed them with:
svn --force remove release/io
svn --force remove release/ui
svn --force remove source/blender/editors/preview
svn --force remove source/blender/editors/physics/ed_fluidsim.c
svn --force remove source/blender/editors/physics/editparticle.c
svn --force remove source/blender/editors/physics/ed_pointcache.c
svn --force remove source/blender/editors/mesh/mesh_layers.c
Now, before merging into trunk, need to update collada code so it builds ok and fix the possibility to build without
collada.
03d3527ef7