as a side note... if you decide to apply the hijack-ext3 kernel... fscking the root partition (with the updated e2fsck ) or stock fsck.ext2 gives the error:
The superblock could not be read or does not describe a correct ext2
filesystem. If the device is valid and it really contains an ext2
filesystem (and not swap or ufs or something else), then the superblock
is corrupt, and you might try running e2fsck with an alternate superblock:
e2fsck -b 8193 <device>

i had to use the stock fsck to do it.