MESS (MAME) on debian - bios roms path?

[Zenaan Harkness <zen@freedbms.net>]

Anyone use MESS and have it working? :

$ /usr/games/mess c64n -sc|egrep -i path
# CORE SEARCH PATH OPTIONS
rompath                   /tmp/bios

$ ls -l /tmp/bios/901226-01.u3
-rw------- 1 me me 8192 Dec 24  1996 /tmp/bios/901226-01.u3

$ /usr/games/mess c64n
901226-01.u3 NOT FOUND
... (more similar)

??

TIA
Zenaan