Failied to access the CVS repository

[MEI-XING ZHAO]

Hi,

I am having a problem of accessing our CVS repository. Here is an 
example when I run a CVS command:

$ cvs log file1
can't create temporary directory /tmp/root/cvs-serv4896
Permission denied
$

Basicly, I am getting this error on any cvs command(cvs ci, cvs update...).

Any idea on where the problem is and how to fix it?

I vaguely remember that I was trying to checkin some code to this CVS 
repository when I had my CVSROOT set to another CVS repository. I am not 
sure if this messed up this CVS repository.

Thanks,
Mei