[Linux Screen] Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied Error info Sometime, usually after a crash or sudden shutdown, screen refuses to start. Commands like screen screen -ls screen -r screen -d result in the following output Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied Fix Cannot make directory '/var/run/screen': Permission denied The directory /var/run/screen/ is the socket directory for screen. Fortunately, screen reads a environment variable SCREENDIR to get an alternative socket directory. So to work around it, you can create a directory, such as ~/.screen: mkdir ~/.screen && chmod 700 ~/.screen and export the SCREENDIR to point to that directory: export SCREENDIR=$HOME/.screen You can also put this line into you ~/.bashrc so that it will also take effect afterwards. Result References https://superuser.com/questions/1195962/cannot-make-directory-var-run-screen-permission-denied