chown: changing ownership of `.': Invalid argument

Solution 1:

The /commun file system is mounted from a remote server, and the error message suggests that is could be an nfsv4 mount (the same for earlier nfs versions is Permission denied). By default the remote file server will map remote root user to a nobody account so it cannot change the file ownership.

The easiest solution may be to use the local lindenb account to create the directories under the /commun directory. So as root

sudo -u linedb mkdir -p /commun/data/users/lindenb

If that doesn't work then there may be some id mapping taking place so you may have to mkae the directories on the server xxx.xx.xxx.xxx and change the ownership/permissions there.

Solution 2:

mount -t nfs -o vers=3 SERVER:PATH MOUNT_PATH

This worked for me.