I keep geting this:

¨SDL: Info: SDL initialized
Error creating dir /home/user/.xmame/mem : Permission denied
Child: running xmame.SDL frogger -fullscreen -ror -scale 2 (null) (null)
SDL: Info: SDL initialized
Error creating dir /home/user/.xmame/mem : Permission denied
Child: running xmame.SDL frogger -fullscreen -ror -scale 2 (null) (null)¨

nono matter which rom I try. Looks like a permission issue, do I need root access?
thanks,
edit:
tried mkdir mem on .home/user/.xmame, and told I wasn't allowed, maybe if the .xmame went on MyDocs it would run.