Yes I am 100% sure that it is ext2 (i re-created it just now after reading your mail). The / is reiserfs.
The root filesystem type shouldn't matter.
Try this:
mount /dev/hdh3 /t chown root:root /t chmod 1777 /t
Now, what's the output from the following commands:
mount ls -l / /t touch /t/jim su rpm -c "touch /t/fred" ls -l /t
Paul.
