I've setup a chroot environment by setting up /bin, /lib and /etc/passwd in the chroot environment /tmp/chrootdir. As a root user I can run "chroot /tmp/chrootdir" and it works just fine. But, when I run it as a regular user, I get:
"chroot: can't change root directory to /tmp/chrootdir: Operation not permitted"

I'd like to be chrooted into a new environment as someone other than root.

Is this possible?

Thanks.

chroot is intended to be run only by root. That said, allowing users to chroot is a relatively common request.

Basically, to do this, you would need to write a setuid program that did the following:
*Chrooted to the appropriate directory
*Dropped the root privileges back to their old level
*Ran the program specified, or /bin/sh if nothing is specified.

This is a perfect task for a shell script, but UNIX systems don't like setuid scripts. So, you'd probably have to write that little thing in C. Or maybe someone else has already done so, google around.

What about letting users execute the chroot command with sudo?

Hmmm, I was always under the assumption that a chrooted user that was still root was more insecure than a regular user in a chrooted environment. This is the only reason I'd rather be chrooted as a normal user rather than root. Is this not so? Is having a user chrooted as root secure enough?

I realize there are ways of getting around a chroot environment.

win32sux: Thanks, but I don't have sudo on this machine and would prefer not to put it on if at all possible

Untested, but I think it's should work.

Run chroot'ed sshd on non-standard port. (Non-standard port needed to preserve
ability ssh to this box as it was before)
Then users can ssh to this port and they should be chroot'ed

I agree. My suggestion was to have your setuid wrapper program *drop* it's root privileges once inside the chroot. So the user calls the setuid executable, but it only stays root long enough to call chroot().