diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
index b3e96b9d9de..38a6f039680 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/CHANGES.txt
@@ -121,6 +121,9 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9420. Add percentile or max metric for rpcQueueTime, processing time.
     (Liang Xie via wang)
 
+    HADOOP-9652. Allow RawLocalFs#getFileLinkStatus to fill in the link owner
+    and mode if requested. (Andrew Wang via Colin Patrick McCabe)
+
   OPTIMIZATIONS
 
     HADOOP-9748. Reduce blocking on UGI.ensureInitialized (daryn)
@@ -150,9 +153,6 @@ Release 2.4.0 - UNRELEASED
     HADOOP-9817. FileSystem#globStatus and FileContext#globStatus need to work
     with symlinks. (Colin Patrick McCabe via Andrew Wang)
 
-    HADOOP-9652.  RawLocalFs#getFileLinkStatus does not fill in the link owner
-    and mode.  (Andrew Wang via Colin Patrick McCabe)
-
     HADOOP-9875.  TestDoAsEffectiveUser can fail on JDK 7.  (Aaron T. Myers via
     Colin Patrick McCabe)
 
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
index ede8e6556e2..fa4970bff01 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/main/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/RawLocalFileSystem.java
@@ -16,8 +16,11 @@
  * limitations under the License.
  */
 
+
 package org.apache.hadoop.fs;
 
+import com.google.common.annotations.VisibleForTesting;
+
 import java.io.BufferedOutputStream;
 import java.io.DataOutput;
 import java.io.File;
@@ -51,7 +54,13 @@ import org.apache.hadoop.util.StringUtils;
 public class RawLocalFileSystem extends FileSystem {
   static final URI NAME = URI.create("file:///");
   private Path workingDir;
-  private static final boolean useDeprecatedFileStatus = !Stat.isAvailable();
+  // Temporary workaround for HADOOP-9652.
+  private static boolean useDeprecatedFileStatus = true;
+
+  @VisibleForTesting
+  public static void useStatIfAvailable() {
+    useDeprecatedFileStatus = !Stat.isAvailable();
+  }
   
   public RawLocalFileSystem() {
     workingDir = getInitialWorkingDirectory();
diff --git a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestSymlinkLocalFS.java b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestSymlinkLocalFS.java
index c82dcc8a124..64e34af64bb 100644
--- a/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestSymlinkLocalFS.java
+++ b/hadoop-common-project/hadoop-common/src/test/java/org/apache/hadoop/fs/TestSymlinkLocalFS.java
@@ -38,6 +38,11 @@ import org.junit.Test;
  * Test symbolic links using LocalFs.
  */
 abstract public class TestSymlinkLocalFS extends SymlinkBaseTest {
+
+  // Workaround for HADOOP-9652
+  static {
+    RawLocalFileSystem.useStatIfAvailable();
+  }
   
   @Override
   protected String getScheme() {