1. The EXT2 file system utilities and libraries. EXT2 stands for "Extended Filesystem", version 2. It's the main filesystem type used for hard disks on Debian and other Linux systems. This package contains programs for creating, checking, and maintaining EXT2 filesystems, and the generic `fsck' wrapper. From Debian 3.0r0 APT

2. The e2fsprogs package contains a number of utilities for creating, checking, modifying and correcting any inconsistencies in second extended (ext2) filesystems. E2fsprogs contains e2fsck (used to repair filesystem inconsistencies after an unclean shutdown), mke2fs (used to initialize a partition to contain an empty ext2 filesystem), debugfs (used to examine the internal structure of a filesystem, to manually repair a corrupted filesystem or to create test cases for e2fsck), tune2fs (used to modify filesystem parameters) and most of the other core ext2fs filesystem utilities. You should install the e2fsprogs package if you need to manage the performance of an ext2 filesystem. From Mandrake 9.0 RPM