here's the output of ls -la in /mnt/lfs directory:

root@ubuntu:/mnt/lfs# ls -la
total 32
drwxr-xr-x 5 root root 4096 2011-11-07 12:45 .
drwxr-xr-x 4 root root 4096 2011-11-07 11:38 ..
drwx------ 2 root root 16384 2011-11-07 11:38 lost+found
drwxrwxrwt 6 lfs root 4096 2011-11-07 13:07 sources
drwxr-xr-x 2 lfs root 4096 2011-11-07 12:45 tools

All of chapter 5is done as user so if there is a permission issue then something is wrong

Hi,
Yes, _all_ steps in chapter 5 need to be done as user lfs (as I already mentioned in post #11).

In chapter 4 you create the lfs use and its environment. At the end of 4.3 you log in as user lfs and chapter 5.35 is where you log out as user lfs and become root again (for the remainder of the book).

Remember: Chapter 5 creates a temporary environment, chapter 6 is where you build the actual LFS system (which uses the sane temporary environment you build in chapter 5).

My advise: Don't start changing owners and groups by hand, too easy to overlook one or more. Start from scratch.

Hope this helps.