diff --git a/debian/changelog b/debian/changelog
index c2e5d729..79226ac4 100644
--- a/debian/changelog
+++ b/debian/changelog
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 livecd-rootfs (1.116) UNRELEASED; urgency=low
 
   * added new -f switch for changing image build type
-  * added support for building ext2/ext3/ext4 images in addition to squashfs
+  * added support for building ext2 and ext3 images in addition to squashfs
   * fixed spacing in the livefs build code
   * extended BuildLiveCD to handle the -f switch
   * reworked BuildLiveCD command line parsing to be more sane
diff --git a/livecd.sh b/livecd.sh
index 8fd31cee..6da94099 100755
--- a/livecd.sh
+++ b/livecd.sh
@@ -21,13 +21,12 @@ set -eu
 # Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA.                                             #
 ##########################################################################
 
-# Depends: debootstrap, rsync, python-minimal|python, procps, squashfs-tools, ltsp-server [i386]
+# Depends: debootstrap, rsync, python-minimal|python, procps, squashfs-tools, ltsp-server [i386], genext2fs
 
 cleanup() {
     for mnt in ${ROOT}dev/pts ${ROOT}dev/shm ${ROOT}.dev ${ROOT}dev \
 	       ${ROOT}proc/sys/fs/binfmt_misc ${ROOT}proc ${ROOT}sys \
-	       ${ROOT}lib/modules/*/volatile ${ROOT}var/{lock,run} \
-	       `pwd`/mount-livefs; do
+	       ${ROOT}lib/modules/*/volatile ${ROOT}var/{lock,run}; do
 	umount $mnt || true
     done
 
@@ -75,33 +74,16 @@ livefs_squash()
   chmod 644 livecd.${FSS}.squashfs
 }
 
-# This function could be extended for other non-ext filesystems, but
-# they aren't consistant on how you format a non-block device
-
-livefs_ext()
+livefs_ext2()
 {
   # Add 10MiB extra free space for first boot + ext3 journal
-  size=$((($(du -sx --block-size=1024 ${ROOT} | cut -f1) + (10240)) * 1024))
-  mountpoint=`pwd`/mount-livefs/
-  echo "Building $IMAGEFORMAT filesystem."
+  size=$(($(du -ks ${ROOT} | cut -f1) + (10240)))
+  echo "Building ext2 filesystem."
 
   # remove any stale filesystem images
-  rm -f livecd.${FSS}.$IMAGEFORMAT
-
-  # Make blank filesystem, and loopmount it
-  dd if=/dev/zero of=livecd.$FSS.$IMAGEFORMAT bs=$size count=1
-  mkfs -t $IMAGEFORMAT -F livecd.$FSS.$IMAGEFORMAT
-  rm -fr $mountpoint
-  mkdir $mountpoint
-  mount -o loop ./livecd.$FSS.$IMAGEFORMAT $mountpoint
-  rm -fr $mountpoint/lost+found
-
-  # Copy everything from the rootfs into the ext2 image
-  cp -ar $ROOT/* $mountpoint
-
-  # Call cleanup again to unmount everything and make sure loop0 is cleared
-  cleanup
-  rm -rf mount-livefs
+  rm -f livecd.${FSS}.squashfs
+
+  genext2fs -b $size -d ${ROOT} livecd.${FSS}.ext2
 }
 
 if [ $(id -u) != 0 ];then
@@ -686,13 +668,18 @@ Pin-Priority: 550
 
 
     # Build our images
-    if [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext2" ] || [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext3" ] \
-	|| [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext4" ]; then
-        livefs_ext
+    if [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext2" ] || [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext3" ]; then
+        livefs_ext2
     else
         livefs_squash
     fi
 
+    # Upgrade ext2->ext3 if that's what is requested
+    if [ "$IMAGEFORMAT" = "ext3" ]; then
+        tune2fs -j livecd.${FSS}.ext2
+        mv livecd.${FSS}.ext2 livecd.${FSS}.ext3
+    fi
+
     # LTSP chroot building (only in 32bit and for Edubuntu (DVD))
     case $FS in
         edubuntu-dvd)