cvs stupid user problem, please help me debug

[Paul E Condon <pecondon@quiknet.com>]

I saved a cvs repository of personal programs in RedHat some time ago, 
before I discovered
 Debian. Now I'm trying install it and access the files in it. I used 
tar to save the whole
 repository as cvs.tgz. When I untar it, I discover that the 
permissions are wrong and the
group assignment of the files is different from the Debian convention. 
So I set about to
make them right for Debian, but I can't get it to work.

First question: Debian uses "src" as the conventional group name for 
cvs internal files.
RedHat uses "staff". Do I need to change this? Or just add myself to 
the "staff" group?
I've changed them all to 'src' and added myself to group 'src', but I'm 
curious.

Second question: What permissions do I need to set? I've done
chmod g+w *
everywhere that there is a directory, but I still get these error 
messages when I try to
checkout a sample program directory, e.g.:

pecondon@big:~/co$ cvs co hello
cvs checkout: warning: cannot write to history file 
/var/lib/cvs/CVSROOT/history: Permission denied
cvs checkout: Updating hello
cvs checkout: failed to create lock directory for `/var/lib/cvs/hello' 
(/var/lib/cvs/hello/#cvs.lock): Permission denied
cvs checkout: failed to obtain dir lock in repository 
`/var/lib/cvs/hello'
cvs [checkout aborted]: read lock failed - giving up
pecondon@big:~/co$

I have a feeling I will be shown to be really ignorant when this is 
resolved but I'm past
caring about egg on my face!

Thanks.

--
Paul E Condon            | Failure is not an option.
pecondon@quiknet.com     | It's bundled with the software.