Tested with Joomla 3.5.0-dev, current master (as of 7abe00f).

Database Version MySQL 5.1.73 (mysqlnd 5.0.10)
Database Connection Collation utf8_general_ci
PHP Version 5.4.16

To test (requires using a system that does not support utf8mb4 -- see PR #7173):

• Perform a fresh install using the "Test English (GB) Sample Data"
• Log in and configure:
  • Global Configuration->System Settings: Debug system = yes
  • Global Configuration->Server Settings: Error Reporting = Development

Go to Extensions->Manage->Database:

Note the errors shown:

8 Database Problems found:
    Table 'osvlt_banners' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_categories' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_contact_details' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_content' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_menu' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_newsfeeds' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_tags' does not have column 'alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)
    Table 'osvlt_ucm_content' does not have column 'core_alias' with type 'varchar(191)'. (From file 3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql.)

Tap the "Fix" button. Note the error:

An error has occurred.

    1115 Unknown character set: 'utf8mb4' SQL=ALTER TABLE `osvlt_banners` MODIFY `alias` varchar(191) CHARACTER SET utf8mb4 COLLATE utf8mb4_bin NOT NULL DEFAULT ''; 

The errors obviously relate to PR #7173.

I'm not sure what the proper fix is, but I do see a couple things in that PR that I have questions about:

1. administrator/components/com_installer/models/database.php, line 266 has a hard-coded file name which doesn't actually exist: $fileName = JPATH_ADMINISTRATOR . "/components/com_admin/sql/updates/$serverType/3.5.0-2015-01-01.sql";. I believe the file it is referring to is actually mysql/3.5.0-2015-07-01.sql (note the different date).

2. As noted in the errors above, Numerous columns are reported as having an incorrect type. The SQL file attempts to set the type to varchar(191), but the actual type found in the database is varchar(255). So the SQL file is obviously not being applied properly (hence the errors). But that also raises the point that the default schema (installation/sql/mysql/joomla.sql) needs updating so that the columns at issue are created as varchar(191), not varchar(255).