man-db cannot create temporary filename

[Claudio Sanchez III <sanchezc@mail.utexas.edu>]

I just installed debian potato on my PowerBase.  Now I get this error
whenever trying to view a man page:

$ man man
man: can't create a temporary filename: Permission denied

Man package is man-db_2.3.16-1.deb from ftp.debian.org.  Installs ok.  
Try to make database:

# mandb
Processing manual pages under /usr/share/man...
fopen: No such file or directory
Updating index cache for path `/usr/share/man'. Wait...mandb: can't create
a temporary filename: Permission denied

Man-db is not functional as provided in the package.  It seems to be a
permissions problem, but I don't know where.  How can I fix this?  Thanks.

--
Claudio Sanchez, III
sanchezc@mail.utexas.edu