cvs, running out of inetd as a pserver, incorrectly tries to access the /root directory when a remote user connects. Error and Warning messages include the following: cvs server: cannot open /root/.cvsignore: Permission denied cvs [server aborted]: can't chdir(/root): Permission denied This would appear to be a problem triggered by glibc 2.1 or inetd since the .src.rpm from 6.0, when built on RH5.2, does not exhibit this problem. A (nasty) workaround is to chmod +x /root
You have not configured your pserver correctly. Try "info cvs" and search for indetd. If you had configured correctly, then either 1) you waould have had root access because that's the user inetd uses to start a pserver 2) you would have been in pserver mode and would not have tried to access $HOME fro the invoking user (i.e. /root