ext2fs and uid/gid

[Wouter Klouwen <dublet%acm.org@localhost>]

Dear all,

I just installed NetBSD 5.0 on one of my machines and want to create an ext2
partition so I can share information across different OSes.

Everything works fine, apart from me not being able to change the uid or gid
on any of the files or directories created, which somewhat defeats the
object of using it.
Also, mount_ext2fs cannot read partitions created by mkfs.ext2.

If I create the partition using mkfs.ext2 from e2fsprogs I get the following
result:

# mkfs.ext2 /dev/wd0g
mke2fs 1.40.7 (28-Feb-2008)
Warning: 256-byte inodes not usable on older systems
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
1534080 inodes, 6131916 blocks
306595 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
Maximum filesystem blocks=0
188 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
8160 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
        32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
        4096000

Writing inode tables: done
Writing superblocks and filesystem accounting information: done

This filesystem will be automatically checked every 31 mounts or
180 days, whichever comes first.  Use tune2fs -c or -i to override.
# mount /dev/wd0g /mnt/shared
mount_ext2fs: /dev/wd0g on /mnt/shared: incorrect super block

If I create it using newfs_ext2fs, the following happens:

# newfs_ext2fs /dev/rwd0g
/dev/rwd0g: 23952.8MB (49055328 sectors) block size 4096, fragment size 4096
        using 188 block groups of 128.0MB, 32768 blks, 16320 inodes.
super-block backups (for fsck_ext2fs -b #) at:
32768, 65536, 98304, 131072, 163840, 196608, 229376, 262144, 294912, 327680,
...............................................................................
# mount /mnt/shared
# touch /mnt/shared/foo
# ls -n /mnt/shared/foo
-rw-r--r--  1 0  0      0 Jan 13 18:50 foo
# chown 1000 /mnt/shared/foo
# ls -n /mnt/shared/foo
-rw-r--r--  1 0  0      0 Jan 13 18:50 foo

According to the release notes, 16 & 32 bit uid & gids are supported, so why 
doesn't this work?

Regards,
        Wouter